Getting started
XRCed interface contains these components:
- XML tree
- a tree representing the structure of the resource
file.
- Attribute panel
- a panel with the information about the currently
selected tree item. Class and object name is shown in the upper part
and a notebook with a number of pages is shown below for editing object's
attributes.
- Pull-down menu
- is shown when a used right-clicks inside the
tree control. Is is used for creating new elements and basic operations
such as copy/paste.
- Component panel
- is a graphical menu for creating new elements
by clicking on icons or by dragging them on the test window.
- Test window
- can be shown for an already existing part of the
resource tree to see the resulting appearance of the interface.
Using XRCed is easy once you understand some basic principles. First
of all, it is using a structure-oriented tree-based editing technique,
versus point-and-click method used in most GUI builders. The tree
is actually almost a direct respresentation of the hierarchy of object
nodes in XRC file. More precisely, only the nodes corresponding to
visible interface elements are shown. An example of an object node
which is not an interface element is the sizeritem node.
XRCed tries hard to make accessible the full information contained
in XRC file, so even the nodes which are not shown in the tree must
be represented. This is done by adding their property pages to the
attribute panel.
Secondly, creating new elements is context-dependent. The new elements
are inserted in the tree relative to the current selection (except
for drag-and-drop mode when the place is determined dynamically).
Sometimes there is an ambiguity on the exact position, because some
elements are containers which can have children, but it may
be needed to create the new element as a sibling node instead of a
child. Sibling mode can be forced by holding Ctrl key on
wxGTK/wxMSW or Alt key on wxMac when inserting a new element.
Similarly, a new element can be inserted as the first child of a container
by holding Shift key (default is to append it as the last
child).