Common LispWorks User Guide, Liquid Common Lisp Version 5.0

14 The Interface Builder

As you create each window, it is automatically displayed and updated on-screen, so that you can see what you are designing without having to type in, evaluate, or compile large sections of source code.

As well as making code development significantly faster, the interface builder allows you to try out different GUI designs, making it easier to ensure that the final design best suits your users' needs.

The interface builder has three views to let you design an interface.

• The layouts view is used to specify the elements in each window or dialog of an application.

• The menus view is used to create menus and menu items for each window of an application.

• The code view lets you examine the source code that is automatically generated as you create an interface.

Because the interface builder generates source code which uses the CAPI library, this chapter assumes at least a minimum knowledge of the CAPI. See the LispWorks Guide to the CAPI and the CAPI Reference Manual for details.

A complete example showing you how to use the interface builder to design an interface, and how to integrate the design with your own code, is given in Chapter 15, "Example: Using The Interface Builder". You are strongly advised to work through this example after reading this chapter, or in conjunction with it.

14.1 - Creating or loading interfaces

14.2 - Creating an interface layout

14.3 - Creating a menu system

14.4 - Editing and saving code

14.5 - Performing operations on objects

14.6 - Performing operations on the current interface

14.7 - Performing operations on symbols

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