In the form Wizard, what determines if "Show Position" works? 3

[mikejcurtis]

I'm a pretty primitive coder in FoxPro, the main way I design a form is to use the Form Wizard to make a form, then I write code to make a similar form using the generated form as a model for placement of the various objects inside the form.
What ticks me off is that although I have the setting in TOOLS>OPTIONS>FORMS>SHOW POSITION checked, as I'm buzzing along creating and placing my objects in my blank form, seemingly at random the position and size display stops. The only way I've found to bring it back is to close project and then reopen it. Then the display stays until the next random moment.
My question is, is this random or is there something I can check to see why it's geting turned off like that?

 

[TamarGranor]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I'd like to strongly discourage you from writing code to create forms, if by "writing code," you mean that you're not using the Form Designer. That's like typing with one hand tied behind your back.

Tamar

 

[JRB-Bldr]

There is a VFP Form Wizard and a Form Designer.

The Form Designer (launched from the Command Window - MODI FORM MyForm) is the tool that most of us use since it allows us access to all of the objects, methods, etc so as to create things the way we want instead of having things done for us the way some 'wizard' wants to do it.

I'd encourage you to learn to build forms in that manner instead of using the 'Form Wizard'.

As to the SHOW POSITION...
Like your own experience, I have found that even when checked the position sometimes doesn't appear on the bottom status bar, but if I UnCheck it and then Check it, the values appear.

If you are editing a Form you should not need to close the Project. You should be able to go to the VFP top menu View | Show Position and Uncheck it and then Check it again to get the values to once again re-appear. Frustrating, but easy to resolve (at least temporarily).

Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr

 

[Mike Lewis]

Mike,

I have to agree with JRB-Bldr. I've never figured out a way to make this setting stick. It's the same story with showing the line numbers in the code editor. You make the setting, and everything's fine for a while, then it suddenly disappears. I just try not to worry about it.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[Olaf Doschke]

It works if you set it in vfp options. Tab IDE, choose "Code Windows" as Type of the IDE window, then check "override individual settings". Setup tab/indent size, font and also the show line/column position as you like and save it by clicking "apply" and then "Set as default". Now every code window will work that way no matter how there may be an individual setup. You may repeat this for Type "program files".

By the way those individual setups are stored in foxuser.dbf and somehow not reliable in my experience too.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Olaf,

I'll try your suggestion when I get a moment. I've always used the Properties window (right-click in the code editor and choose Properties) rather than the Tools / Options dialogue. But the Properties window doesn't have Set As Default, which might be why I can't get it always to stick.

Mike



__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[mikejcurtis]

What seems to happen for me with my wee bit of expertise garnered over the past 25 years or so of very sporatic application development using everything from R:base to dBase III+, through all the versions of Foxpro, is the form designer gives me headaches I have to ask for help on getting out of on anything but the most straight forward of projects. Like when control buttons don't move me through tables the way I'd expect, or my queries used to populate Combos don't work right. The project I completed prior to this one required the forms and controls to reconfigure themselves based on what the user chose. I designed it for a touch screen with no mouse or keyboard so the the forms controls resized and changed their functions and appearance based on the user's choices. I got so stuck trying to do that exactly right in the Form Designer that I opened an incident with Microsoft and had their Foxpro team help me. What came out of that was that writing the code to Design Classes on the fly gives one complete control. I've been trying to do that with this new project because I enjoyed that absolute control over everything that happens to every control. I find objects the Form Designer generates have code associated with them that I don't know how to see even when I View Parent Code. So if something is going wrong, I can't see what is causing it by turning Set Step On. That makes me crazy. I know the situation is a result of my ignorance of our wonderful Foxpro, but I have to get the project complete, so I'd rather use my hammer and chisel and form each letter once, in stone and know it will do only exactly what I tell it to.