how to rotate stack 90 degrees

[jacque]

If the goal is just to fit the stack on screen, set the scalefactor of the stack. You won't need to rotate it if you do that.

[keram]

Yes, I tried that but as I mentioned in my original post then the squares for resizing the fields etc in edit mode are soooo tiny - it's hard to see them and very difficult to work, to resize them by dragging.

[jacque]

Okay, another approach is to just move the large stack around on the monitor. You won't be able to see the whole thing at once but it acts sort of like a scrolling window. You can do that from the message box by setting the top of the stack to a negative number to see the bottom half, but Richard Gaskin has a utility that lets you drag a mockup image around which is much easier.

I don't remember the name but maybe he can provide a link.

[FourthWorld]

My DeskView utility will allow you to drag stacks around on screen:
http://fourthworld.net/revnet/devolutio ... iew.rev.gz

That version is password-protected; I'm working on an upgrade to the whole Devolution toolkit which will not only be much improved but also GPL and fully unlocked.

As useful as DeskView is (hardly a day goes by that I don't use it), I can't recommend it for this purpose because some OSes prevent creating stacks larger than the screen size, so it may not help with this at all.

Far better to just work toward resolution independence. This is what the design guidelines for both mobile OSes recommend, and both the OSes and LiveCode provide plenty of APIs to make that achievable with minimal effort, likely less effort than trying to work harder to avoid resolution independence only to be unable to run on most mobile devices.

[SparkOut]

I do believe this is still what the op is trying to do. His problem is trying to design a layout for hi-res devices while using a low-res monitor on the development machine. Following advice received in other threads, he is using stack dimensions based on the largest likely target device, and intends to use LiveCode's resolution independence tools to scale down for smaller devices.
In this case, it might be more expeditious to design at a lower resolution and scale up for any target devices of higher resolution. With a thirteen inch monitor, I imagine moving the stack around to view while developing will still be necessary hence the op will most probably appreciate your DeskView helper.

[jacque]

Far better to just work toward resolution independence.

Agreed, but as I understand it, he needs a full-scale view for development. Resolution independence should be used for deployment, but apparently it is too difficult to see and grab drag handles when the stack is scaled to fit his development machine.

Edit: wrote this while SparkOut was posting, but we're both on the same track.

[FourthWorld]

In this case, it might be more expeditious to design at a lower resolution and scale up for any target devices of higher resolution.

Agreed. I have to work really hard to imagine anything more frustrating than trying to emulate a mobile device in the desktop IDE. Mobile work requires frequent testing on the device anyway, so setting up things for auto-scaling where possible, and providing multiple sets of image files at different resolutions as needed, should help make the development process smoother and the testing more fruitful.

With a thirteen inch monitor, I imagine moving the stack around to view while developing will still be necessary hence the op will most probably appreciate your DeskView helper.

...providing the OS will allow it. Gnome doesn't, and there are often at least some other funky weirdnesses when you try to work with windows bigger than the OS can possibly display within its monitor bounds. Anyone here is welcome to use DeskView however they like, but I think the answer here is to heed the advise of the mobile OS vendors themselves who suggest we anticipate different resolutions from the start, knowing that most desktops will have lower pixel density than mobile and providing alternate images sets to handle anything beyond what our desktops will need.

[keram]

Thanks to all of you,

This is my first app and first time I'm facing this issue of making it suitable for different devices so all your input is very valuable.
Now I lean towards creating a stack for an 8 inch tablet instead with 800 x 1280 display so it will be little easier to work on my 13 inch laptop screen and as I understood the LC feature of setting the fullscreenmode should take care of different screen sizes.

so setting up things for auto-scaling where possible, and providing multiple sets of image files at different resolutions as needed, should help make the development process smoother and the testing more fruitful.

Do you mean that even with auto-scaling one should provide different image sets, even though images will also scale (in my case scale down)? Is it really necessary when scaling down?

Thanks Richard for your nice plugin.
May I suggest to improve it so that the stack can be moved up beyond the upper edge of the monitor. Right now I can only move it up so that the top edge of the stack align with the top edge of the screen, which means that a lot of the lower stack area remains hidden.

Also It would be great if it could be used in the Community edition which I normally use now.

keram

[keram]

Well, I found a nice stack that Dixie posted here http://forums.livecode.com/viewtopic.ph ... 712#p60592 and that allows you to shuffle around a stack that is bigger than the screen.

I added the sliders and Move Right/Left and Scaling as well - see the attached stack.
It should move the stack in a smooth way when holding the mouse down but it's not always doing that. Often you have to keep on clicking on the buttons get the stack moving and often the selection of the stack in the field gets lost.

keram

[richmond62]

Thanks, Keram, that shuffle stack is really useful

[keram]

Yes, I started to use it right away.
But I did not manage to improve the code so it does not lose that smooth moving of the stack. Is it happening only on my computer??

[FourthWorld]

Thanks Richard for your nice plugin.
May I suggest to improve it so that the stack can be moved up beyond the upper edge of the monitor. Right now I can only move it up so that the top edge of the stack align with the top edge of the screen, which means that a lot of the lower stack area remains hidden.

The current movement restriction is the default by design, since most GUIs have the drag region at the top of the window, and it for some reason you were unable to use DeskView to get it back you'd be stuck with a window you can't move.

However, anticipating the occasional need for this, that's only the default behavior: if you hold down the Shift key while dragging a window proxy in DeskView you can drag it anywhere - even entirely offscreen. If that happens a right-click in DeskView on any non-window portion will bring up a popup menu that includes an item for centering offscreen windows.

Also It would be great if it could be used in the Community edition which I normally use now.

The version of DeskView to be included with my devolution v3 toolkit will, like the rest of the toolkit, be free and open under the same license as LiveCode's Community Edition, GPL v3. Not sure when I'll have time to complete it, but I use it daily in my client work and it's coming along well, so with any luck it may be usable by others within a few weeks.

[keram]

if you hold down the Shift key while dragging a window proxy in DeskView you can drag it anywhere - even entirely offscreen. If that happens a right-click in DeskView on any non-window portion will bring up a popup menu that includes an item for centering offscreen windows.

It's just great! really! And there is even a feature to scale. But that is to scale the DeskView... Would you be able to add scaling of the stack itself?

keram

[FourthWorld]

if you hold down the Shift key while dragging a window proxy in DeskView you can drag it anywhere - even entirely offscreen. If that happens a right-click in DeskView on any non-window portion will bring up a popup menu that includes an item for centering offscreen windows.

It's just great! really! And there is even a feature to scale. But that is to scale the DeskView... Would you be able to add scaling of the stack itself?

Glad you like it.

I'll add ScaleFactor to the popup menu that you see when you right-click on a stack proxy. Good idea - thanks.

[keram]

Hi Richard,

The version of DeskView to be included with my devolution v3 toolkit will, like the rest of the toolkit, be free and open under the same license as LiveCode's Community Edition, GPL v3. Not sure when I'll have time to complete it

And how everybody will know it's ready?
Where is the download link?

Thanks.

keram