9 Graphical User Interfaces
This chapter introduces you to the concepts necessary to create IDL applications with graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The chapter begins with a review of the reasons for creating a GUI application, and an overview of the GUI components (widgets) available in IDL. This is followed by a discussion of the differences between GUI programming and procedural programming, and a brief philosophy of GUI design. The chapter continues with an in-depth explanation of the functions used to create widgets. Examples of good and bad widget layouts are given, along with guidelines for naming widget buttons. This is followed by a discussion of events and event handling, and example programs demonstrating event management. Finally, ...