@node Part III Introduction
@chapter Introduction

This part describes all different object classes that are available in
the Forms Library. All available object classes are summarized in a
table below. For each class there is a section in this document that
describes it. The section starts with a short description of the
object, followed by the routine(s) to add it to a form. For (almost)
all classes this routine has the same form
@example
FL_OBJECT *fl_add_CLASS(int type, FL_Coord x, FL_Coord y,
                        FL_Coord w, FL_Coord h, const char *label);
@end example
@noindent
Here @code{type} is the type of the object in its class. Most classes
have many different types. They are described in the section.
@code{x}, @code{y}, @code{w} and @code{h} give the left upper corner
and the width and height of the bounding box of the object.
@code{label} is the label that is placed inside or next to the object.
For each object class the default placement of the label is described.
When the label starts with the character @code{@@} the label is not
printed but replaced by a symbol instead.

For each object class there is also a routine
@example
FL_OBJECT *fl_create_CLASS(int type, FL_Coord x, FL_Coord y,
                           FL_Coord w, FL_Coord h, const char *label);
@end example
@noindent
that only creates the object but does not put it in the form. This
routine is useful for building hierarchical object classes. The
routine is not described in the following sections.

An important aspect of objects is how interaction is performed with
them. First, there is the way in which the user interacts with the
object, and second there's the question under which circumstances an
object changes its state and how this is returned to the application
program. All this is described in detail in the following sections.

Object attributes can be divided into generic and object specific
ones. For generic attributes (e.g.@: the object label size), the
routines that change them always start with @code{fl_set_object_xxx()}
where @code{xxx} is the name of the attribute. When a specific object
is created and added to a form, it inherits many aspects of the
generic object or initializes the object attributes to its needed
defaults.

Object classes can be roughly divided into static object classes (Box,
Frame, LabelFrame, Text, Bitmap, Pixmap, Clock and Chart), Buttons,
valuator objects classes (Slider, Scrollbar, Dial, Positioner, Counter,
Thumbwheel), Inputs, choice object classes (Menu, Choice, Browser),
container object classes (Tabbed Folder, Form Browser, Menu bar) and,
finally, other object classes (Timer, XYPlot, Canvas, Popup).

@table @asis
@item Box
Rectangular areas to visually group objects.
@item Frame
A box with an empty inside region.
@item LabelFrame
A frame with label on the frame.
@item Text
Simple one line labels.
@item Bitmap
Displays an X11 bitmap.
@item Pixmap
Displays a pixmap using the XPM library.
@item Clock
A clock.
@item Chart
Bar-charts, pie-charts, strip-charts, etc.
@item Button
Many different kinds and types of buttons that the user can push.
@item Slider
@itemx ValSlider
Both vertical and horizontal sliders to let the user indicate some
float value, possibly with a field showing the currently set value.
@item Scrollbar
Sliders plus two directional buttons.
@item Dial
A dial to let the user indicate a float value.
@item Positioner
Lets the user indicate an (x, y) position with the mouse.
@item Counter
A different way to let a user step through values.
@item Thumbwheel
Rolling a wheel to indicate float values.
@item Input
Lets the user type in an input string.
@item Menu
Both pop-up and drop-down menus can be created.
@item Choice
Can be used to let the user make a choice from a set of items.
@item Browser
A text browser with a slider. Can be used for making selections from
sets of choices.
@item Folder
A (tabbed) folder is a compound object capable of holding multiple
groups of objects.
@item FormBrowser
A browser you can drop forms into.
@item Timer
A timer that runs from a set time towards 0. Can e.g. be used to do
default actions after some time has elapsed.
@item XYPlot
Shows simple 2D xy-plot from a tabulated function or a datafile. Data
points can be interactively manipulated and retrieved.
@item Canvas
Canvases are managed plain X windows. It differs from a raw
application window only in the way its geometry is managed, not in the
way various interaction is set up.
@item Popups
Popup are mostly used by menus and choices, but they can also be used
stand-alone to isplay context menus etc.
@end table

Thus, in the following sections, only the object specific routines are
documented. Routines that set generic object attributes are documented
in Part V.

When appropriate, the effect of certain (generic) attributes of the
objects on the specific object is discussed. In particular, it is
described what effect the routine @code{@ref{fl_set_object_color()}}
has on the appearance of the object. Also some remarks on possible
boxtypes are made.
