GUI with loops?

[Mooonty]

What is it you are trying to achieve?
Get my GUI buttons to work alongside loops


What is the problem you are having?
The GUI buttons do not work when loops are running beside them


Describe what you have tried to solve this problem
I have tried many things, just no success


Post any relevant code (You may choose to attach the file instead of posting the code if it is too long)
<Answer Here>

Turing:

import GUI procedure Start %Process code end Start procedure Exit %Process code end Exit procedure Instructions %Process code end Instructions %My buttons assigned to variables and procedures. var StartButton : int := GUI.CreateButton (400, 203, 93, "Start", Start) var InstructionButton : int := GUI.CreateButton (400, 180, 0, "Instructions", Instructions) var ExitButton : int := GUI.CreateButton (400, 157, 93, "Exit", Exit) %Intro Continued (Had to put this part after the buttons were drawn) loop     %The Hangman     drawfilloval (100, 320, 20, 20, red) %head     drawfilloval (100,310,10,4,white) %mouth     drawfilloval (93, 323, 5, 5, white) %left eye     drawfilloval (107, 323, 5, 5, white) %right eye     drawfilloval (93, 323, 2, 2, black) %left pupil     drawfilloval (107, 323, 2, 2, black) %right pupil     drawline (100, 220, 100, 300, red) %body     drawline (100, 220, 130, 180, red) %right leg     drawline (100, 220, 70, 180, red) %left leg     drawline (100, 260, 140, 260, red) %right arm     drawline (100, 260, 60, 260, red) %left arm     %Moving Arms     for x : 0 .. 40         drawline (100, 260, 60, 260 + x, red) %left arm         drawline (100, 260, 140, 260 + x, red) %right arm         delay (25)         drawline (100, 260, 60, 260 + x, 11) %left arm         drawline (100, 260, 140, 260 + x, 11) %right arm     end for     %Moving Arms 2     for x : 0 .. 40         drawline (100, 260, 60, 300 - x, red) %left arm         drawline (100, 260, 140, 300 - x, red) %right arm         delay (25)         drawline (100, 260, 60, 300 - x, 11) %left arm         drawline (100, 260, 140, 300 - x, 11) %right arm     end for end loop loop     exit when GUI.ProcessEvent end loop

Any help would be greatly appreciated! What this basically is, is a graphic of a stick man waving. This is looped so he does it forever until you want to play the game (Hangman opening menu)

The problem I am having is obviously that GUI buttons do not work when loops are running in the same process. I was just wondering a way around this? I would love to keep both aspects of my menu without having to remove anything.

Thanks!

[Insectoid]

Your first loop runs forever, so the second loop with GUI.ProcessEvent never executes. Why not put GUI.ProcessEvent in the same loop as everything else?

[Mooonty]

Even when putting GUI.ProcessEvent in the same loop, the buttons are still not clickable.

[Insectoid]

Actually, the buttons are clickable. The problem is that your program spends so much time going through your for loops that Turing has trouble detecting your clicks. If you comment out the for loops it works just fine (after moving GUI.ProcessEvent into the main loop of course). I'm not sure if there's a 'correct' way to solve this, however you can fix it by creating your own buttons (with Draw.Box and Mouse.Where), which is a little bit complicated, or by moving your for loops into a separate process and forking it, which is also pretty complicated and can cause all sorts of weird bugs.

[Tony]

Insectoid @ Wed Dec 11, 2013 3:07 pm wrote:

I'm not sure if there's a 'correct' way to solve this

You are spot on with your analysis that internal for-loops take way to much time. The correct way is to replace internal for-loops by using a frame counter in a single main loop, and draw one frame at a time.

code:

loop    frame += 1    draw_frame(frame)    GUI.ProcessEvent    delaySinceLast end loop

[Insectoid]

Quote:

The correct way is to replace internal for-loops by using a frame counter in a single main loop, and draw one frame at a time.

Oh, right. I just assumed the for loops were drawing 40 things, rather than drawing an animation. Silly me for not thinking of that.

[Mooonty]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I found a way around it by just limiting the loop to run for a small time period so that the buttons are clickable after the loop has finished. I might consider looking into these cool little tricks as well. Thanks!