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 "In the U.S.A. they have Bill Clinton, Johnny Cash and Bob Hope.
In Sweden we have Carl Bildt, no cash and no hope."
                                 Eero Koskinen, Finnish immigrant


                YOUR SECOND GFA BASIC 3.XX MANUAL
                             - or -
        HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE GFA-BASIC
                             PART 25
                 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - WINDOWS
                          by Han Kempen

GFA-windows

 GFA-Basic has four "easy" windows for not too complicated  jobs.
Draw  an imaginary cross on the screen.  The intersection of  the
two lines is determined by the coordinates in 'OPENW  n,x,y'.  If
you  show  more than one GFA-window on  the  screen,  you  should
realize  that resizing one window automatically changes the  size
of the other three windows as well.  Use the AES  window-commands
if you need independent (GEM-)windows.

 The four GFA-windows reserve the top line for the menu-line of a
pulldown  menu.  If  you use your  own  GEM-windows,  you  should
protect the menu-line yourself, e.g. with 'OPENW 0'.

 The GFA-windows are numbered 1 - 4 by GFA-Basic. Let's call this
the  window-index  of a GFA-window.  A window also has  a  number
that's used by GEM. Let's call this the window-handle of the GEM-
window.  In a listing you can spot a window-index easily  because
the number is preceded by '#'. Except after OPENW:

     OPENW 1                  ! open GFA-window #1
     OPENW #1,x,y,w,h,a       ! also opens GFA-window #1

 The  first  command  is  used after  some  manipulation  of  the
WINDTAB-parameters.  The second command changes these  parameters
directly, so you can ignore WINDTAB.

 A standard-method for the use of one GFA-window looks like this:

     TITLEW #1," Title "      ! automatically centered
     INFOW #1,"Information"   ! left justified
     (...)                    ! adapt WINDTAB-parameters for
                                   GFA-window #1
     OPENW 1                  ! or use OPENW #1 with parameters
     CLEARW #1
     (...)
     CLOSEW #1
     CLOSEW 0                 ! see paragraph 'CLOSEW'

CLOSEW

 If you have opened a window in your program,  always use 'CLOSEW
0' before returning to the editor. Otherwise you won't be able to
work normally in Direct Mode,  although you can also type 'CLOSEW
0' in Direct Mode in order to restore everything to normal again.
In a compiled program you have to avoid 'CLOSEW 0',  because  TOS
will  complain  that too many files are open if you do  use  this
command. No, I don't know why.

 If    you   use   the   AES   window-commands,    always    call
WIND_CLOSE(handle)  before WIND_DELETE(handle).  Or  use  'CLOSEW
handle'.

TITLEW

 You can clear a title with:

     TITLEW #n," "

 Don't  use "" instead of " ",  or you won't be able to move  the
window afterwards!

CLEARW

 After 'CLEARW #n' all visible areas of the GFA-window with index
n  are  cleared,   without  activating  the  window.   GFA   uses
WIND_UPDATE and WIND_GET for this command. 'CLEARW n' both clears
and activates the GEM-window with handle n. 

Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s) was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes, bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.