Hi Rob - yeah the deal is that all the UI is actually defined by .htm files that are under the \ui subfolder underneath MoI's main program files folder.

It is possible to change the UI by changing those files, that's how those customized UIs work.

You're probably thinking more of a kind of "drag/drop" type mechanism for re-arranging things though? I don't have anything currently set up for that, and unfortunately it will take a fair amount of work to make a system for that.

Early on with MoI I kind of came to a point where I decided to focus my effort more on just the general "standard" UI design rather than on enabling stuff for dynamic re-arranging. Partly that was because of the sort of "unlimited" re-arrangement that is possible by editing the UI definition files directly...


Another thing is that in the future I expect to add additional panels, it helps a lot for future expandability to have things on different tabs like the current setup.

I do have a few ideas for some particular targeted things that may help sooner than a full UI drag/drop re-arrangement, like maybe being able to add buttons to the bottom toolbar so you could peel out some of your most frequently used things to the top level that way. Some more targeted re-arranging things like that are probably in the cards for a sooner timeframe than a full palette drag/drop but I'm still not really sure on a timeframe for that neither, currently a lot of other things like group management, object property editing, and history editing are a lot higher on the priority totem pole.

- Michael

Being that you went with HTML for the UI design I imagine you could also use Flash based elements if you wanted which is hella cool!

I've always admired Flash designers one in particular Noel Rubin - his site especially his theory section is really cool.

http://www.teknoel.com/
(Just put your cursor over the N in the menu bar to open it and click Theory: ScrollJet (click vertical or wide) - the Carousel is pretty hott too - drag the middle bar to flip between the folders. Boy to be able to browse a library or folder list using something like that!)


I can imagine using Flash, you could dream up all kinds of widgets to fold out, roll up etc., for conserving screen space.


But of course that's another level of coding (and potential problems) that would have to be managed. Certainly counter to keeping things simple.


As programmer by profession, I've always envied Flash based GUIs; the freedom of being able to completely design your controls - I guess now with Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation, I can finally do that kind of stuff in my apps but I'm waiting for Silverlight v2 to mature a bit more before I take the time to learn it...


-Will

Hi Will, yeah actually that should work if you wanted to have a kind of Flash UI section inside of MoI's UI.

But I don't myself have any experience working with Flash so that would be a pretty big new area for me to look into for me.

MoI uses a different method for making widgets which are some extension methods on mshtml like IElementBehavior and IHTMLPainter.

If you're interested in using Flash for stand-alone program design, you might want to check out Adobe AIR: http://www.adobe.com/products/air/

- Michael

< http://www.teknoel.com/
Very complex navigation!

AIR is Cool. here some examples, http://pixlr.com/editor/ http://www.sumo.fi/products/sumopaint/ http://kuler.adobe.com/

Hi Michael, yes, while I own Flash Pro, and try to keep up with the upgrades, my Flash skills leave much to be desired.

I know Flash just enough to do whatever website stuff it is I need to do. Actionscript 3 however does however make programming Flash more of a joy since it's a "full" OOP language now.

While I've known that you use HTML and IE (amazingly) for your GUI, it didn't hit me until this post that you also have the option of using Flash and I was imagining out loud the possiblities...


I didn't really expect that would be something you'd want to undertake and definitely wasn't making any suggestions for you to do so, hence my voicing of the additional complexities it would cause.



I have to say though with your mastery of mathematics (I sux at math) I can imagine you'd probably be able to get widgets going like Noel (rotating stuff, 3D wireframes etc.,) in no time! (You'd probably need just ONE Flash book and you'd be on your way! ;-) )


Yes, I'm familiar with Adobe Air and I've played around with it briefly but haven't kept up with its development since its initial release.

I must say there are great times to be had these days working with HTML / web applications - compared to just 2 - 3 years ago!


-Will