RTBuilder

steve64

I'm trying 1.7.1 x64 and when using RTBuilder I found the following issues:
1) the widget property "Name" is not kept and restores to the tool selected initial name
2) it's hard to define a stable z-order for widgets
3) the RTBuilder sometimes may crash and leave the generated UI .lua file uncompleted and so no longer usable
4) the toolbar with component icons may disappear

Samir

1) the widget property "Name" is not kept and restores to the tool selected initial name
➡️ It's a bug, thank you for the report steve

2) it's hard to define a stable z-order for widgets
➡️ LuaRT don't support z-order, you have to set it manualy after loading a Window file

3) the RTBuilder sometimes may crash and leave the generated UI .lua file uncompleted and so no longer usable
➡️ I need more info on this, does it crashes during saving from what I understand ?

4) the toolbar with component icons may disappear
➡️ I can't reproduce this, can you post a screenshot ?

steve64

2) it's hard to define a stable z-order for widgets

➡️ LuaRT don't support z-order, you have to set it manualy after loading a Window file

In most GUI scenarios, widget can be not overlapped so z-order is not so important. However, the use case I'm facing is to create graphics behind widgets, like even simple filled rectangles.
Using a ui.Panel does not work with the RTBuilder since widgets can change z-order dynamically.

A solution could be to allow a picture to be used as fixed window background below all real widgets. I still have to try with the ui.Canvas object in background...

3) the RTBuilder sometimes may crash and leave the generated UI .lua file uncompleted and so no longer usable

➡️ I need more info on this, does it crashes during saving from what I understand ?

It crashed during saving.

4) the toolbar with component icons may disappear

➡️ I can't reproduce this, can you post a screenshot ?

It's difficult to reproduce, maybe it was just went below all other windows. There should be a way to keep visible the toolbar when the RTBuilder is the active application.

esferatec

I have created a widget manager for a current project [Login to see the link]. I have now added the option to define a z-index and z-order. Maybe it will help you to create a z-order manager for your application or you can use mine.

Samir

esferatec Great module !

G1mpy

Thank you everyone who has helped with Luart! I downloaded 1.7.1 today and tried RTBuilder for the first time. It's awesome and I was able to start a screen for an actual application. Is there a way to automatically align items?

I have tried many flavors of Lua, including ulua, Luapower, murgalua, Lua for Windows. They all fall short in some ways especially on the UI part. Limiting Luart to Windows was a good decision. It's too much work for developers to try and support both 'nix and Windows. Would dropping 32 bit support help with moving Luart forward with new features?

Samir

Thank you so much G1mpy for this feedback on LuaRT. I agree with you with the fact that Lua ecosystem tries to be compatible with many platforms but fails because of this, especially on Windows plateform.