Version 1.1 MODIFICATIONS/ENHANCEMENTS from Version 1.0

  General Changes

1. Added default parementer values to many methods where they would obviously be useful (e.g, vwWidget::setOver(int o=True)).

2. Removed getFunction() from concrete widgets.

3. Exchanged home-grown list template used in vwMediator with STL list template.

  New Class vwPushButton

vwPushButton is publically derived from vwButton. Unlike vwButton, which retains its new pressed state after vwButton::setPressed() is called, vwPushButton generates an event via notify() and then re-sets its pressed state to False. It also overrides the virtual vwButton::setOver() method in order to deflect in Y when the left wand button is pressed and getOver() is True. The vwPushButton can be thought of as a semi-automatic rifle. It fires off an event whenever it is pressed and immediately re-loades to enable it to fire off the same event again when triggered.

  Changes to vwSubject

vwSubject::setSubjectData(void * data) is no longer public. It is now protected. The reason for this is that setSubjectData() really shouldn't be used unless by a knowledgable user who has sub-classed the widget anyway. Careless use of setSubjectData() can result in undesired side-effect, especially with the vwSlider and vwIncremetor classes which send a pointer to their data value to attached concrete observers when update() is invoked.

  Changes to vwWidget

1. vwWidget::~vwWidget() destructor now deletes its own pfGroup (i.e., pfDCS or pfSCS), if it still exists. It also unreferences it if necessary.

2. Added getIdent() and getInterface() to vwWidget. These two methods are meant for application specific widget identification and widget group identification through the declaration and definition of setIdent() and setInterface() methods (see example programs) in the subclass and the override of getIdent() and getInterface() in the subclass.

3. Modified the argument list for two static vwWidget functions; handleWidgets() and isOver(). The argument of type, CAVE_ID was moved to the end of the argument list so that it could be given a default value of CAVE_WAND.

4. Added getColor(wColor, float []) to vwWidget, to allow application to extract a specific 4 component color from a widget into a pre-declared 4 element float array.

4. Converted the structure vwWidget::wdgStruct into a class nested in vwWidget. This makes for much safer and cleaner garbage-collection by vwWidget::wdgStruct::~wdgStruct. The cleanup method clean_wdgStruct() has been discarded.

   Changes to vwButton

1. Modified internals of vwButton::setPressed(). There are now two protected virtual methods, doPushButton() and doProcessPress(), which are called before notify(). doPushButton() encapsulates the default displacement behavior of the button when it is pressed. doProcessPress() is a pre-notify() hook function that does nothing by default. doPostProcessPress() is a post-notify() hook function that does nothing by default. An example of its use can be found in the new class vwPushButton, which needs to retain its pressed state of True for notification, but then immediately needs to revert back to its default state where getPressed() returns False.

2. Modified vwButton::setIsPressed() to call setColor() and doProcessPress().

   Changes to vwSlider

1. Renamed protected virtual method vwSlider::manageBounds() to vwSlider::applyDrag() in order to better reflect this method's function. Also renamed private vwSlider::makeDrag() method to vwSlider::computeDrag() and fixed a memory leak in this function.

2. Modified vwSlider::setDataDrag() to take a second argument of type int with a default value of False. If the value of this argument is passed as True, notify() will be called from within setDataDrag().

   Changes to vwIncrementor

1. vwIncrementor::setDataParms() can now be called multiple times to re-initialize or change data parameters.

2. vwIncrementor's subject data pointer has been changed to reference a float regardless of the incrementor's intialization type. This prevents the need to quiry the incrementor for its type before casting its data pointer in update() routines.

3. Added vwIncrementor::getIncDataType() method which returns an enum defined in vwIncrementor. This method's return value can be one of the following: vwIncrementor::INTEGER, vwIncrementor::FLOAT or vwIncrementor::PRE_INITIALIZED.

   Changes to vwLabel

1. Added vwLabel::setExtrudeSize(float val=1.0) to allow for explicit manipulation of extrusion size.

2. Default parameters for vwLabel and also vwIncrementor have been unified.