Matt Bennett: CAD & Code

I won’t be around for a few days from today so purchase and support requests may well go unanswered.

I’ll be back on Monday 10th.

Cheers!

What’s new:

Even more control over the look of GUI!

Previously each button state required a bitmap, but now you can specify an alpha blended coloured rect instead.  You can now also specify the distance of the text offset on mouse down (I didn’t like how it was hard coded +1 pixel in X an Y), and the colour of the caption text for mouse over and mouse down states.  The new GUI control parameters are..

‘ caption colors (in the usual r,g,b,a integer format)

overcolor
downcolor

‘ image rects (colors in the r,g,b,a integer format)

normalrect

overrect

downrect

‘ text caption offset for individual control

downx

downy

‘ text caption offset for both values

downoffset

This means the only asset you need to get started with the GUI is a bitmap font.

Sprite methods renamed

Since I figured out scope resolution in Blitzmax I’ve been able to rename the following sprite methods.. Set_X, Set_Y, Set_Alpha, Set_Rotation, Set_Position, Get_X, Get_Y, Get_Alpha, Get_Rotation, Get_Position.  Now none of them have that ugly underscore character.

Sprite animation methods added

CurrentFrame returns the current bitmap frame,

SetFrame sets the current bitmap frame,

TotalFrames returns the total number of bitmap frames.

Download links, links to the full changelog and updated docs in the usual place.

Well, they are for me anyway…

Today I killed my website.

It’s easy done.  I have two mySql databases; one for this site and one for messing around with.  I decided to delete the ‘play’ database to create another for different reasons.  Except I didn’t.  I deleted the database this whole site revolves around.

Step 1. Panic!  Thankfully I’ve not had the feeling of a massive-irreversible-f–k up for quite some time.  I remember it well.

Step 2. Look for ‘undo’, ‘undelete’ or ‘restore’ options.  Nothing.

Step 3. Go to www.dataflame.co.uk and log onto the support chat.  I got an operator (William) in about 20 seconds.  He had a look, but I couldn’t tell him my log in password so there was nothing he could do.  He told me to submit a support request.

Step 4. Submit support request and begin chewing nails nervously.  Just how long would a support request take to be picked up?  Same day? Next day? Who knows.

Step 5. Check emails impatiently for 5 minutes.  Nothing.

Step 6. Check the site to see if by some miracle the last 10 minutes has all been a bad dream.  Amazingly it’s back!  A minute later I get an email from dataflame support (William again, I assume it’s the same guy).  Telling me it’s fixed and to check it and report any further problems.

Step 7. Breath again.

There we go.  From the time of my dumb ass mistake to Dataflame support picking up the pieces and sending me on my way again was little more than 10 minutes.  I’ve used their support several times before and it’s always been very good but that was for really minor issues compared to this.

Really good job Dataflame guys.  I know where my hosting is staying for the foreseeable future.  I always recommended you before but now I’m on a crusade to put the entire internet in your hands!  Sort of.  Well here’s a banner ad anyway…

Thanks Dataflame!

I’ve been busy on this new site and it’s working pretty well so far.  Some of you will recognise it as a Wordpress site which has taken a lot of the pain away!

Over time I hope to merge www.contractcad.co.uk with this site so this will be a one-stop-shop if you’re looking for CAD or Code.

Part of the reason for this site is to make a home for my Blitzmax framework; MBM Framework so I need to polish that some more and prepare it for release too.