DragTest

Release: 16/10/2001

Let us examine the main feature of the dragtest.py program: the DragSquare class.

# New object: a square that can be dragged around

class DragSquare(Square):

	def __init__(self, x1, y1, x2, y2, colour):

		Square.__init__(self, x1, y1, x2, y2, colour)
		self.old_colour = colour
		self.dragging = 0

We have inherited features of the Square class, which provides a static square of a particular colour at a specified place in a window's work area. Since the redrawing method of this class will be the same as that for the Square class, we re-use its code. We also set the attribute old_colour as this is the default colour for the square.

	def click(self, x, y, buttons, window):

		if buttons == app._select_drag_:

			if x < self.x1: return 0
			if y < self.y1: return 0
			if x > self.x2: return 0
			if y > self.y2: return 0

The click method is called when the app module recieves a click event from the window manager. The x and y coordinates of the position in the window where the click occurred are given in work area coordinates so that, after we have checked that the select button is being held down for a dragging operation, we can determine whether the click occurred within the object's bounding box. If it missed then we return 0.

			# Start a drag operation in only one of the parents
			app.windows[window].start_drag(self.name, x, y)

			self.colour = 11
			self.dragging = 1
			return -1

In this block, we respond if the click was inside the object's bounding box. The parent window, the handle of which is passed as window is informed that this object is to be dragged within the window. The colour of the square is changed to red (desktop colour 11), we record that this object is being dragged (self.dragging = 1) and we claim this click by returning -1.

		elif buttons == 0 and self.dragging == 1:

			self.dragging = 0
			self.colour = self.old_colour

			for parent in self.parents:
				app.windows[parent].update(self.x1, self.y1, self.x2+1, self.y2+1)

If the mouse buttons are all depressed (up) and the object is being dragged then we record that this object is no longer being dragged (self.dragging = 0), give it its old colour, and redraw the square in all the parent windows so that appears with this old colour.

		# Unclaimed
		return 0

If any other buttons were pressed then we ignore the event and return 0.

A lot of the work required for moving objects in this manner is performed in the library.

David Boddie
david@boddie.org.uk