Re: Forms 4.0 Char and GUI

The best way to plan ahead for total GUI/Char Mode poratibility with Forms 4.0 is to take advantage of Named Visual Attributes. These are meaningfully named objects which represent a collection of color/font/style information, together with a character mode equivalent mapping.

For example, you can create a Visual Attribute named "Item_Selected" which encapsulated maps color/fount/style information for bitmapped platforms, character mode device attributes for character mode platforms, and black/white info for monochrome devices all in one object.

             ITEM_SELECTED

		Font: helvetica
		Size: 14
	       Style: Italic
	       Width: Normal
	      Weight: Medium
	  Foreground: Black
	  Background: Grey
	     Pattern: Transparent

	  Character Mode Logical Attribute: Inverse-Underline

	  White on Black: [ x ]

Then, you simply use the visual attribute by name in built-in commands like:

    Set_Item_Property('block.itemname', VISUAL_ATTRIBUTE, 'Item_Selected');

Or, can set this visual attribute (by name) to be the default visual attribute for any object in the designer. If you're color preferences ever change, you need only change the definition of the visual attribute, and all associated objects automatically pick up the change.

The list of available character mode logical attributes can be seen in the "Cm_Logicals" table of visual attributes using Oracle Terminal 2.0, looking in the default resource file for your platform (Windows is 'FMRPC.RES' and Motif is 'FMRM.RES'). The list includes:

   Normal, Bold, Bold-Inverse, Inverse, Inverse-Underline,    Bold-Inverse-Underline, etc.

Hope this helps.

--

Steve Muench         Email: smuench_at_oracle.com
Forms Development      CIS: 73404,676
Product Manager
Oracle Corporation