New Controls and Dialogs

A number of new control window classes are provided under OS/2 Version 2.0. These are primarily used to aid in the implementation of the Workplace Shell and the 1991 SAA CUA Workplace Environment, and are available for use by application developers. They are:

Container

The purpose of the container control is to hold other objects within the Workplace Shell, in order to allow grouping of objects on the desktop in a logical manner determined by the end user. A container control may display objects in various formats or views, where each view displays different information about the objects.

Notebook

The notebook control provides a method for organization and navigation of user dialogs, where the required information and prompts may not be easily displayed in a single dialog box. A notebook control looks like a multi-page notebook, with a dialog on each page. The user can interact with the top page, and can move to the others either page-by-page or directly, by using tabs attached to the edges of the pages.

Slider

The slider control looks rather like the slider controls found on some audio equipment, and is used where a value must be chosen from a continuous but finite range of settings. It is ideal for setting approximate values and properties, particularly analog values which are not easily enumerated or expressed in other ways. The slider indicates a particular quantity and the range of allowable values for that quantity.

Value Set

The value set control is similar in function to the radio button control implemented in previous versions of OS/2, but provides additional flexibility in that it may be used to display a set of values in graphical, numeric, or textual format, whereas the radio button is limited to textual format only. As with a radio button, selecting one item in the set deselects any previously selected value.

Progress Indicator

The progress indicator control is used to display the progress of a long-running operation, such as file transfer or disk backup/restore, by means of a hollow bar that fills with color from one end like a thermometer.


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