Popupable

Hey there everybody...

Nice to see loadsa progress has been made in my absence.  But, through the
crowd, I can see a few things that need doing.  Anyway, extreme, unfunny
sarcasm aside, here's my state of play:

I'm going to work on (and hopefully finish today):
popupable (able in the essence of ables)
combo

Whilst it was largely considered that combo was similar to drop down in
more ways than one, there are a number of very subtle differences that
warrant them being different widgets.

* dropdown has editable text, combo does not
* dropdown's edit field is not part of the selection list, combo's is (see
following ascii art)

dropdown:

.---------.-.
|_________|v| << edit box with arrow
|abc    |^|-'    selected item a separate field
|def    | |
|xyz    |v|
'-------'-'

combo:

.---------.
|abc    |^|_
|def    | |v|<< selected item centered
|xyz    |v|-'   selected item not separate field
'-------'-'

A combo box is, if you like, a substitute for a set of radio buttons where
you might not have the space or want to use the space taken up by radio
buttons.

Having just written all this, I had forgotten where I just saw said combo
box.  I can't actually find it now, with all the combo boxen I'm
encountering being non-editable dropdowns (just like the java swing API
has them).  So I might leave combo for a while.

Popupable will somehow have a 'type' that defaults to 'smart' but can be
always a frame or always stick with the parent surface.  A smart popup
will be drawn on the parent's surface if there is enough room, but be it's
own frame if there is not enough room.

It will optionally timeout and popdown after an arbitrary period.

It will go up or down or according to an offset, depending up firstly
availability and secondly preference.

On another note, I need to add background selecting to selectable, but
that shouldn't be overly difficult.  Y'know, shift or control and click to
grab multiple items.  It'll just be a simple addition, since even when
there are multiple items selected, there is always one 'main' selected
item.

Anyway, hopefully gridbag will be into the new engine soon *subtle hint to
Adam* so I can crack on and finish table.

- Charlie

If pro is the opposite of con, then the opposite of progress would be...