GUI Buildeer Deluxe 1.3

[tidbit]

GUI Buildeer Deluxe v1.3
Download|Screenshot (.gif)
About:
Need a Gui but don't want the hassle of learning to code it yourself? Or those pesky GUI builders not working quite right?
Well now you're in luck. With the press of a single button, you too can have a nice* GUI built instantly** with 0*** effort!
* Opinions may vary, results may vary. ** Instantly-ness not guaranteed, especially with Speak enabled. *** Some effort required, such as but not limited to: saving the script, running the script, pressing a button

Features:
- handy for learning gui basics
- 11-ish control types
- single click GUI creation
- speaking, for the visually impaired or those who cannot read ahk well
- basic GUI documentation
- code output, including labels and named variables
- anti button-spam technology
- GUI preview
- amazingly not-so-perfect simple code generation that mostly kind of works
- completely stand-alone. No files created anywhere, no registry stuff, no dependencies (I think).
- some would say the commented code is a hoot


Release notes:

Spoiler

1.3 (Thu February 04, 2016)
- Added basic code generation (it's by no means perfect).

1.2 (Tue January 26, 2016)
- Added: Checkboxes to enable/disable generated vVars and gLabels
- Added: A button that opens the CHM to the gui page
- Added: Reset to defaults button for Advanced settings
- Changed: The UI has been re-organized a bit
- Changed: The version number has been increased by 0.1

1.1 (Sun January 24, 2016)
- Added: Sliders
- Added: Progress
- Added: More random words
- Added: Some minor randomness to some things
- Enhanced: Anti button spam technology
- Changed: Generated GUI doesn't steal focus. you can spam {Enter} now
- Changed: Certain controls get enabled/disabled under certain events

1.0 (Sat January 09, 2016)
- Initial release

[SnowFlake]

why not save it as .AHK then text in Pastebin

[Bugz000]

why not save it as .AHK then text in Pastebin

pastebin. not even once.

[SnowFlake]

like this, http://pastebin.com/UkvT4RaE :3
and also hey Bugz000

[tidbit]

ahk highlighting is butt-ugly on pastebin. bright on white = horrible. impossible to read. just keep it all black and you can save/copy it then load it in your editor.

[kunkel321]

This is my new favorite thing!
EDIT: Just for fun, I highly recommend activating "speak controls" and putting the "number of controls to add" at some really large number...

[tidbit]

thanks, kunkel321 :3
Speak was a fun feature to add. it got plenty of giggles during testing.

[tidbit]

Updated!
1.1 (Sun January 24, 2016)
- Added: Sliders
- Added: Progress
- Added: More random words
- Added: Some minor randomness to some things
- Enhanced: Anti button spam technology
- Changed: Generated GUI doesn't steal focus. you can spam {Enter} now
- Changed: Certain controls get enabled/disabled under certain events

[tidbit]

Updated!
1.2 (Tue January 26, 2016)
- Added: Checkboxes to enable/disable generated vVars and gLabels
- Added: A button that opens the CHM to the gui page
- Added: Reset to defaults button for Advanced settings
- Changed: The UI has been re-organized a bit
- Changed: The version number has been increased by 0.1

"Checkboxes to enable/disable generated vVars and gLabels"
I needed this for a quick little filler gui to fill in some space but got annoyed by needing to manually remove all labels and gui options.

[tidbit]

Updated!
1.3 (Thu February 04, 2016)
- Added basic code generation (it's by no means perfect).

How it works:
if the control that creates a label is a button, pick one of 3 things:
1) if the target control is a Listview, use LV_Add()
2 & 3) 50/50 chance to use "guicontrol, ..." to update the targeted controls text or "guicontrol, move, ..." to move the targeted control

note: it doesn't know about things like sliders/ddl/progress/hotkey. it just chooses a randomly saved variable and does stuff to it. It's basic.
NOTE: the generated code does not work in the preview GUI. you'll need to save the script and run it. don't really feel like adding that fancy "run code through a pipe" thing or making temp files.

[kunkel321]

Man this is too cool! I just happened to try the one where the edit box shifts every time you press the bottom. Too funny.
The code generation and explanations actually make this one of the better learning tools I've seen.

[tidbit]

Thanks
have any ideas on what else to add? besides better code generation and more controls like TV, activeX, tabs, groupbox. Those probably won't be added anytime soon (I had ideas for those, but my attempts keep failing. It sounded easier in my head).

[kunkel321]

I was actually thinking it would be funny (though not particularly useful) to add the ability to have "themes." This would be like "language pack" extensions for software apps. So like you have semi random verbiage that gets used for the control names and default values... So have that verbiage contained in an INI [section]. Then forum members could contribute their own sections for the file, that was based on a theme. Of course you'd require a particular set of keys, but the key values and section name could vary.
For example an automechanic might have:
------------------------------
[mechanic]
List1=Ford|Chevy|Honda|Toyota
List2=Wrench|Pliers|Screwdriver
Bottons=Dent, Scratch, Fender
Radio1=Lemon, Beater, Decent, Cherry
etc.
-------------------------------
The end user could pick a theme...
[more useful ideas too.... Have to come back later. Daughter needs attention...]
EDIT: Back now.... Of course this would require an extra (ini) file along with the ahk, which you might not want.
Also, I'm not sure if such a setup would work with your current code setup anyway...

Anyway... Another idea that might actually be useful (for learning purposes) would be to have the auto-generated code actually do things (i.e. do things when the GUI code is saved an run). You already did that with the 'shifting edit box' trick. Other things might be launching notepad, popping up a dialog box, displaying the date two days from now. [daughter again]
EDIT 2: Okay, daughter placated again... The idea of having it do things is just so that it would generate the code, so people could study it and learn from it. There's be a limit on what you could do, because people won't want GuiBD messing with their system settings.

Another feature idea that might be more realistic that the 2 above: In the "What does this stuff mean?" help popup, have it be context aware, such that it displays (only) the exact help items that correspond to what is in the code....

Just some idears.

[tidbit]

Themes: I have something like that in another script. I'll probably add it as hard-coded lists in an object: {mechanic:{lists:[aaa|bbb|ccc, 111|222|33]}, {buttons:[aaa,bbb,ccc,ddd], ....} (it looks a lot more readable when spanned on multiple lines). should be pretty easy. Good idea

But yes, I am trying to avoid the script creating files. it's just a "tidbit thing". I don't like stuff creating files/registry/other unless absolutely needed, and if they are, make it easy to clean up (save in scriptdir).

More things like msgbox, yes. had that planned. Ideally I could get what's in my head working and generated code could be much better. I'll think of more snippets.

I was thinking (no promises. but on the potential to-do list) of a mildly complex feature for code help:
1) get the current line the caret is on in the code output
2) extract the parts of the line ("gui" "add" "CONTROL" "OPTIONS" "text", and labels/return)
3) pop up a tooltip to explain each thing.
though, that tooltip might get pretty big, so it'd be best if I could detect the word the caret is in/next to. explain one thing at a time.

[kunkel321]

What's a TV control, by the way? Are you talking about a television controller? Because that would be pretty awesome.

[hoppfrosch]

TV = TreeView

[kunkel321]

TV = TreeView

Oh right... That makes more sense.
I actually googled "ahk tv control" and only saw a few hits regarding television. LOL

[Greast]

is there is a thing that steals an opened GUI, so I can edit it?

[tidbit]

that is totally not the purpose of this program. It's made to procedurally generate a ui with the controls you tell it to, and then you study the code. "Why did that go there? what does x+3 mean?" <study> "I see!"

[Bugz000]

that is totally not the purpose of this program. It's made to procedurally generate a ui with the controls you tell it to, and then you study the code. "Why did that go there? what does x+3 mean?" <study> "I see!"

that is totawwy nyot the puwpose of this pwogwam. It's made to pwoceduwawwy genyewate a ui with the contwows you teww it to, and then you study the code. "Why did that go thewe? what does x+3 mean?" <study> "I see (・`ω´・) "