If you want to improve this Faq, just click the Edit button right down the bottom. To see your name in the contributors, you have to create a wiki account and login. Please try to find a convenient category to file your addition under. If still totally unsure, stick it in the unsorted section.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Some of the code presented has not been compiled, so it may contain syntax errors. If you find one, please let us know. Corrections and additional questions with answers should be sent to mailto:faq at superwaba.com.br
or, better than that, just edit this page and fix it! Thank you.

Note also that all questions here are valid for Palm OS, Windows CE or Pocket PC, Win32, and Applet-viewer or browser, unless otherwise specified.

If you don't find your answers here, you can also look at the WabaSoft how-to papers which deal with the following topics:

• Waba Installation Papers
  • Installing Waba on a PalmPilot
  • Installing Waba on a Windows CE Palm-sized PC
• Waba Development Papers
  • Writing a Simple Program
  • Dealing with Performance
  • Dealing with Memory
  • Using Images and Timers
  • Working with Catalogs
  • Serial Port Communication
  • Color Images
  • Building the WabaVM for PalmOS
  • Building the WabaVM for Windows CE
  • Building the WabaVM for Windows NT/98/2000

These answers can be viewed at http://www.wabasoft.com/howto.shtml

Symbian OS

Question

Sometimes, when switching between containers, the focus gets lost.

Be sure that you always use Window.swap method (or its counterpart Container.swapToTopmostWindow). Try also to do this:

public void onStart() // called only once, at the first time the container is swapped
{
    onAdd();
    ...
}

public void onAdd() // called everytime the container is swapped into, except the first time
{
    setHighlighting();
}

Question

How can I install SuperWaba applications on Symbian S60v3 (E.G.: Nokia E61/62)

Go to Application Manager (usually it is located under Tools folder). Select Options | Settings menu. When you select Software installation, you can see two options, i.e. Signed only and All. If you choose Signed only, you won't be able to install self-signed application. If you choose All, you will be able to install any signed applications

Question

How can I explore the directories in Symbian?

You can use this program: http://www.pushl.com/y_browser/

Question

How can i delete a task in Symbian?

You can use this program: http://www.pushl.com/taskspy/

Also, if you press and hold the "home" (also called menu or applications) key, a task switcher will appear.

How can i switch a task (or go back to the last SuperWaba program) in Symbian?

You press and hold the "home" key (also called menu or applications), and a task switcher will appear.

Question

Where are my application's data (and the DebugConsole^?.txt file) stored in Symbian?

Here: <drive:>\system\apps\SuperWaba\<name of APP>

Question

Where are the SuperWaba files stored in Symbian?

The pdb files are here:
   <drive:>\system\apps\SuperWaba

The exe and dll files are here:
   <drive:>\sys\bin

Desktop Specific

When I run my application in the desktop, lots of messages are shown in the console. How can I stop this?

You can hide most of the messages using this:

   if (!waba.sys.Settings.onDevice)
      waba.applet.JavaBridge.showMsgs = false;

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20021205

How can I print out data when running on a desktop?

One way to do this is to create a file on the desktop, and then make a call to print the file from the command line (use Vm.exec, details in the SDK documentation).

HTML files can be printed like this:

rundll32.exe mshtml.dll,PrintHTML "c:\temp\allclasses-frame.html"

An option for printing text files is to use notepad as follows:

notepad /p foobar.txt

Linux users can do a similar trick using kprinter or lpr to print the file. kprinter will bring up the printer dialog to print the specified file, lpr just prints the specified file to the default printer.

Go to TOP- Sent by: VikOlliver - 01 Mar 2004

Mac OS X Specific

How can I program my Palm device in SuperWaba from Mac OS X?

To get you started, you can have a look at this step-by-step guide.

Go to TOP- Sent by: HadrienFlipouk - 7 Feb. 2007

Win32 Specific

How can I print using the Win32 VM?

One way to do it is to create a file on the desktop, and then make a call to print the file from the command line (Vm.exec).

Examples of the command line:

HTML files can be printed like this:

rundll32.exe mshtml.dll,PrintHTML "c:\temp\allclasses-frame.html"

The nice thing about this command is that it will bring up the standard Windows print dialog, which will allow users to select a different printer, etc.

An option for printing text files under Windows is to use "notepad" as follows

notepad /p foobar.txt

This prints directly to the default printer.

Go to TOP- Sent by: hbhickman@20031208

Is it possible to use the /scale option in Win32?

The /scale option, used in JDK, is not available in Windows 32. But you can use this workaround:

• Copy the file SuperWabaSDK/lib/MSW2x.pdb (will be available in SuperWaba 4.01) to the folder where SuperWaba for Win32 is located (usually /SuperWaba).
• Rename the current font file to .pd (E.g.: MSW.pdb ->MSW.pd)
• When you run the program, pass these parameters: "/w 480 /h 640" in the command line, before the class name.That's it. You now have the "/scale 2" effect, but with a much nicer look.

Important: you can't keep the old MSW.pdb file in the same directory with the same .pdb extension, or the VM will get confused.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20030816

By default the win32 uses the wince 240x320 screen. Can I use the Palm OS, 320x320?

• Copy the file SuperWabaSDK/lib/5SW.pdb to the folder where SuperWaba for Win32 is located (usually c:/SuperWaba).
• Now, edit the link file to pass these parameters: "/w 320 /h 320" in the command line, before the class name.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20071009

Palm OS Specific

Question

I get error code "Sys 0505(0,60)" when I try to start a SuperWaba application in the Palm OS 5 simulator.

You're using the debugging ROM. You must use the release ROM to be able to run SuperWaba applications on Simulator.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20040925

Question

When I use POSE, I get a warning stating that SuperWaba has just written directly to the display or accessed the hardware registers. Why is this happening?

Question

The Palm OS Emulator issued: SuperWaba just called Palm OS routine "SysSetTrapAddress"

In order to provide gray scale support for earlier versions of the PalmOS, the screen memory and hardware registers must be accessed directly, instead of through the more normal and safer calls provided by later versions of the PalmOS API. You must disable the following options in POSE (right click, Settings/Debuggin):

• Hardware Register Access
• Proscribed Function Call
• Screen AccessNote^? that when the other warnings occur, it generaly indicates a bug in the SWVM. Contact us so we can solve the problem.

  Go to TOP- Sent by: crandell@20010627

Can I use the Palm OS native keyboard instead of the one provided in SuperWaba?

Unfortunately, no. SuperWaba applications can't have access to native controls. That's why SuperWaba provides a different keyboard. There's an advantage to this: we can offer new controls, more customizable than the native controls. For example, Palm OS controls don't have a disabled state. Anyway, you can always create your own keyboard, trying to mimic the native one.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20030117

I have my Palm in the cradle. How can I open a socket connection from it?

You have three choices:

1. Use superwaba.ext.xplat.io.SerialSocket and SerialSocketServer classes. These classes are for Serial connection only. For USB, Linux will handle it correctly, but in Windows you'll need a usb-to-serial cable.
2. On Linux, configure a Palm PPP connection direct to the PC. On the Linux box use as root: /usr/sbin/pppd /dev/pilot 19200 192.168.11.2:192.168.11.1 proxyarp passive silent persist local noauth
3. On Windows 98 use the MochaPPP software. But this software is paid.
4. Windows 2000 and XP both have a built in PPP capability through the serial cable! This is really cool because it allows you to connect your palm to the LAN/internet through a serial cable without having to recode for a different Socket class, since it will use the normal Palm socket code. I found instructions for setting all this up at this URL: http://bwinton.latte.ca/Palm/ppp.html. These instructions are for connecting a Tivo device to Windows XP via a serial cable, but they work just as well for a Palm device (I tested it with Windows 2000 and a Symbol device running Palm OS 3.5 and it worked perfectly). You will have to set up a network connection from the Palm Preferences app to use PPP over direct serial. The neat thing about this particular solution is that since you have a real TCP/IP connection through the serial cable, you can setup your Hotsynch manager to do a Network hotsynch, and then configure the hotsynch app on the Palm device to do a LAN synch to the IP of your machine. This allows you to do both a regular hotsynch and TCP/IP functionality from the device in the serial cradle without stopping/starting the PPP server and/or hotsynch manager.

Go to TOP- Sent by: SirAnodos^?@20021205

Question

Why can't I open a socket, even when I follow the sample code in the documentation?

Waba and SuperWaba will not allow you to open a socket before the main event handling loop has started. The problem is discussed in more detail in theWaba FAQ. The solution is to open the socket outside of your application's MainWindow^? constructor and after the onStart method. A good place is in the onWindowPaintFinished method.

Go to TOP- Sent by: crandell@20011011

When I try to read a value from a socket using POSE, my code runs fine, but when I run it on an actual handheld, it always returns a count of zero bytes read. How can this be fixed?

Put the socket.readBytes statement in a loop until either the count is greater than 0 or a predetermined amount of time has past. solution posted in newsgroup by

Go to TOP- Sent by: PeterCarroll^?@20010627

When I beam my Waba app to another Palm device it doesn't work. Whats wrong?

Beaming apps does exactly that: It beams only the app's prc files, not its pdb files. Usually, a SuperWaba app consists of 4 files: SuperWaba.prc/.pdb, and YourApp^?.prc/.pdb. You are only beaming Waba.prc/YourApp.prc. To beam all, you will need a utility such as the excellent BeamBox^? or Filez programs.
Get it at http://www.palmgear.com

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

What's the minimum Palm OS requirements for running SuperWaba?

SuperWaba runs perfectly in Palm OS 3.0 and above. Palm OS 2.0 support was dropped on version 4.1 due to library's size.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

How can I create a conduit in Palm?

A good place to start on conduits is here:http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/conduits/

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

How can I open the USB port in my Palm with waba.io.SerialPort?

First of all, some words about USB and the features of your Palm. USB defines basically two types of devices that can be connected to the bus, host (master, usually a PC) and peripheral (slave, for example a printer). In each USB bus, one and only one host device at any time must exists, while there may be any number (max. 127) of peripheral devices connected at the same time to the same bus. Starting from revision 2.0 of USB standard, a new device type has been defined, named On The Go (OTG), which has the ability to become a bus master when it's connected to a bus with only peripherals, or a slave when another master is up and running.
The Palm is a USB peripheral, that means it needs to be connected to a bus where a host device is present, like a PC or a OTG device.
To communicate with such devices, it's possible to use the waba.io.SerialPort class, but in your java code, you have to open a specific port when you instantiate this class, that's the port number 0x8004. Using this constant in your code, you can open the USB port of your Palm for a generic connection, and all you need now is to implement a simple "driver" for the devices you want to communicate with, layered above the waba.io.SerialPort class.
This workaround has been tested on: Palm M515, Palm Zire21.

Go to TOP- Sent by: MassimilianoFrancario^? - 11 May 2004

Bitmap Problems

Showing 64k color bitmaps and Jpegs

We had added support for 16 bpp images for Jpegs. This lead to some changes in the virtual machine which could lead to old programs being breaked due to memory problems.

Remember the strange palette problems that occured in devices such as zire 71 and new Tungstens? How can an image with 256 colors lead to problems in a 16bpp device?

The answer is simple: although the device had 64k colors (16bpp), it is switched to 8bpp mode most of the time!

Why Palm OS uses 8bpp with 16bpp devices? Two reasons:

1. 16bpp mode consumes more power 2. 16bpp mode consumes the double of memory.

E.g.: 320x320x8bpp requires 100kb, while 320x320x16bpp requires 200kb. This is used, for example, when you open a Menu, or a popup window.

So, to enable 16bpp in your programs, you must now use a special command line to Exegen: /16

This tells PalmOS5^?_or_16bpp devices that it should switch to a 16bpp screen if one is available.

There's a new flag: Settings.isHighColor (16bpp). Even if you're running in a 16bpp device without the /16 switch, it will return false.

Conclusion: If your program uses lots of images, use the /16 parameter option in Exegen, and THOROUGHLY TEST YOUR PROGRAM IN THE TARGET DEVICE, opening all windows and menus available.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20040401

What is the maximum size of a bmp that i can use?

Since pdb records are limited to 64k, thats it: 64k. Also, everything in SuperWaba is limited to 64kb (well, not exactly 64kb, but 65500 bytes).

Go to TOP

Having problems when loading bitmaps?

Sometimes when you try to load an image, you get "OutOfMemory In imageLoadBmpCompressed". This happens because images require a very big piece of memory. For example, suppose a 120x120 bitmap:

1bpp (black/white): 120*120/8 = 1800 bytes 4bpp (16 colors) : 120*120/2 = 7200 bytes 8bpp (256 colors) : 120*120 = 14400 bytes.

So, a 320x320x8bpp takes almost 102kb!

The PDAs have a limited memory for everything, including images. So, loading lots of images can lead to problems.

To bypass this problem, load only the images you're going to use, and try to decrease the color depth whenever possible (try to use IrfanView - a great free image converter). Be also always sure to use the web-safe-palette, or even the same colors in all 16 color images, or you'll have color problems.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20031208

How can I create an offscreen bitmap, write it to a catalog and get it back?

Please see examples/DrawingControl for an example.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

What kind of images can I display in SuperWaba?

Currently, you can add 1/2/4/8 bits per pixel images to your app. It must be a bitmap in the .bmp file format, compressed or not. Jpg, Gif and PNG are allowed if you purchase the Professional Subscription at the site. 24bpp bitmaps are not allowed.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

How do I save and load bitmaps?

Please see superwaba\samples\ui\painter example.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20060417

Whats the difference between DRAW_REPLACE_COLOR and DRAW_SWAP_COLORS?

Let's say you have a 256 color bitmap.

1. If you want to change one color by another color, use DRAW_SWAP_COLORS. EG: you can swap all red pixels with a purple color.

2. If you want to change all colors to another color BUT preserving one, use DRAW_REPLACE_COLOR. EG: you can preserve the red pixels while replacing all the other 255 colors with purple.

Go to TOP

I'm declaring the colors to use in my application but they appear strange (sometimes even Pink!)

Are you using something like this?

   //Pink borders on everything
   static final Palette PAL = new Palette();
   static final Color WIN_COLOR = PAL.getColor(0x1E);

   // No pink borders
   final Palette PAL = new Palette();
   final Color WIN_COLOR  = PAL.getColor(0x1E);

Another possible problem is that a number of images are being used with different palettes. Some PDAs can only support a small range of colours, and when they get re-used things can turn ugly. The trick is to use the same palette for all images where possible.

Here's what to do to fix it:

Load your image into The Gimp (either the Windows or Linux version) and find out how big it is ( Right-click, Image, Scale Image ).

Take an image from the SuperWabaSDK like ./samples/game/Ping/hockey.bmp and load it into The Gimp.

Resize the image ( Right-click, Image, Scale Image again) to the size you want. You will need to click on the little chain linking the X & Y ratio to scale it unevenly.

Take your image, copy it ( Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C ) over the sample image ( Ctrl-V, Ctrl-H) and save the resulting image as a new .BMP file. Use the new file happily in SuperWaba.

Go to TOP- Sent by: MarkGonsalves^?@20021205

Runtime Problems

I'm getting out of memory problems, saying i can't allocate more than 64k. Can i increase this limit?

SuperWaba already uses all the available memory of the PDA (in Palm OS, even more than the available). It also has a limit of 65500 bytes for any kind of object allocated. This means that a String must have a max of 32750 chars (each char is 2 bytes length), and that no single class file can have more than 65500 bytes.

If you have to read a file from somewhere, consider using the BigByteArrayStream class (available in the Professional SDK), which can read a file of any size.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20080114

Question

I'm getting strange results with float and double. What's wrong?

Computers in general cannot represent all numbers in an exact way, due to limited space available for the precision. So, 1.1 maybe isnt stored as 1.1, but as 1.099999999. That's why sometimes you don't get the exact result as you expected. This is more critical with float (32-bit) datatypes: try to store something like 54321.12345, read the result back: you'll find that the value has changed. Double values use 64 bits, but this does not mean that all problems are gone. The general rule is: do not expect that floating point values are exact. For example, 2.0 % 0.1 == 0 will led to false in most places (even in your Pentium IV machine). Instead, check if 2.0 % 0.1 < 0.00001, then you'll get the correct result. For more information, see this and this.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20031120

What do the GC beeps mean?

When you run the Welcome app (clicking on SW VM icon), there's a VM menu option. By enabling the "Audible GC" option, you will start to hear some beeps every time the Garbage Collector (GC) is called. There are four kinds of beeps (here are the frequencies, lower frequency = deeper sound),

• 2000: the GC is Starting
• 2200: the GC is Ending
• 1300: a memory dump occured
• 1000: a timed chunk was created

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20030720 modified by VikOlliver - 23 Oct 2003

What is the memory dump created when an app exits?

When you run the Welcome app (clicking on SW VM icon), there's a VM menu option. If you enable the "Dump Memory Stats", the VM will dump some memory statistics each time a program exits. By lowering the numbers, you can make your app run faster (PRO subscribers have the Optimization Tricks Tutorial included in the SuperWaba Companion.pdf tutorial). For more information, see SuperWaba.c

There's also a hidden way to dump the stats during the program's run: enter @?@ anywhere (the keystrokes are handled by the VM).

Here's the dump and the meanings. Terminology: a chunk is a block of memory (16Kb) that stores objects.

• Memory Statistics for class that extends MainWindow^?
• Times GC was called: number of times the GC was called by the program
• Total GC time: total time used by the GC
• Times Compact was called: number of times the chunk compactation is called. Note: compactation means that two or more consecutive collected objects were joined to form a bigger object
• Total Compact time: total time used by the compactation process
• Times Compact succeed: number of times that compactation could really compact something
• Times Delete was called: numer of times unused chunks were released to the system
• Total Delete time: total time used by the delete chunk process
• Total Obj Allocated: number of bytes used by all created chunks
• Max Obj Allocated: maximum number of bytes allocated. The number of bytes can shrink when chunks are deleted
• Currently used: number of bytes allocated by objects in use
• Total Class mem: number of bytes used to hold class information
• Chunks created: number of chunks created
• Timed chunks created: number of timed chunks created. Each time an app calls the GC two times before 2000ms, a timed chunk is allocated (this avoids keep calling the GC when a program is doing lots of object creations)
• Chunks deleted: number of chunks deleted
• Calling GC...: Here the VM calls the GC
• Total Obj Allocated: number of bytes used by all created chunks after this last GC
• Currently used: number of bytes allocated by objects in use after this last GC
• Chunks deleted: number of chunks deleted after this last GC

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20030720

Hardware Specific

Which devices are compatible with SuperWaba?

We maintain a list of SupportedDevices.
If you were able to run SuperWaba on a device not yet listed, please update the page to share the information with the SuperWaba community, thanks.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20030514

Is there a method for getting the ROM serial number?

Starting in SuperWaba 4.21, yes. See Settings.romSerialNumber.

Go to TOP- Sent by: dodah12@20031111

SuperWaba Background Info.

Are there any benchmark comparision between SuperWaba and Waba?

Yes. By running the examples/Bench program running in a Palm Professional, here are the results (for SuperWaba x Waba), time measured in Milliseconds:

Go to TOP - Sent by: guich@20010203

Can I run both Waba and SuperWaba in the same handheld?

Yes. SuperWaba uses a different creator id from Waba, so they can live together. Note also that this difference makes impossible to run a Waba application with SuperWaba, unless you recompile and repackage the application.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

"Bad opcode" error when running my SuperWaba app...

SuperWaba doesn't support a few opcodes of java, like the synchronized keyword and also breakpoints. So, make sure you are not using them.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

What are the pros and cons of porting a Satellite Forms application to SuperWaba?

Message sent by Kambiz Darabi to the newsgroup:

I have almost finished porting a former SF app to Superwaba and I have experience in SF programming since 1998.

The speed is not a real issue apart from one single point: when you do case insensitive text searches in databases. There, you have a great performance difference between SF (native code) and SW (Java code).

This is the bad news.

But now the good news: there is already a native Catalog Search Library, which gives searches a performance boost.

And in general: if you have a task which has a bad performance in SW, you can always create a native library which would do the job much quicker. You would have to take the critical methods and port them to C.

Now for another comparison: If you have a moderately complex application and use the Visual Basic type of approach of SF, you have to be very very careful about your software development process. Your business logic is scattered in dozens of "onButtonClicked" and "onValidate" etc. functions in your different "Forms" and there is a good chance of getting into trouble because of side effects of changing global vars etc.

In SW, you can take full advantage of the object oriented approach: you can put your business logic into some distinct classes; you can use a model-view-controller pattern to always keep GUI, data, and business logic separate; you can create re-usable graphical and non-graphical objects which can be quickly reprogrammed; you can use javadoc to document the functionality of your classes; you can use a code repository for team development (e. g. CVS) ... I could go on with this forever, as I'm very enthusiastic about Java after having programmed in different machine languages, Basic, Pascal, Prolog, Lisp, Tcl, C, C++ ...

I would personally never, never go back to Satellite Forms.

Go to TOP- Sent by: KambizDarabi@20021205

I want to port my program from Waba 1.0 to SuperWaba. Is this easy?

Sure! SuperWaba is 99% compatible with Waba. These are the 1% incompatibilities:

• Tab and TabBar^? classes were removed. Use TabPanel^? instead.
• Graphics constants used in the setDrawOp method: the names had changed (and some new operation was added). Use this convertion: DRAW_OVER ->DRAW_PAINT; DRAW_AND ->DRAW_ERASE; DRAW_OR ->DRAW_OVERLAY; DRAW_XOR ->DRAW_INVERT.
• Some VM methods has been removed and has been transformed into public static fields:
  • getPlatform ->Use Settings.platform or Settings.onDevice
  • getRomVersion ->Use Settings.romVersion
  • getUserName ->Use Settings.userName
  • getVersion ->Use Settings.version or Settings.versionStr
  • isColor ->Use Settings.isColor
• The File class has been removed. It will be added in the future to handle the plugin cards file system. You can use the Catalog class now in both Windows and Palm OS devices.
• The Warp and Exegen programs are now a normal Java program (no more a Windows .exe), so you'll need java.exe to execute them. Take a read at the instructions for both. Exegen now uses a different creator id for SuperWaba programs, so you must install a new PRC file replacing the one created with Waba. Also, in Windows CE there's no more WRP files: you must install the same PDB files used in Palm OS.Take a look at this faq. It has answers to other porting questions too.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20021206

How can I add native methods to SuperWaba?

There is a specific tutorial for this: The SuperWaba Library Tutorial, that is included in the SuperWaba Companion.pdf file available in the PROFESSIONAL subscription SDK. If you are unable to afford the meagre price of the tutorial, then look at the scanner library as an example.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

What are the differences between SuperWaba and J2ME ?

Please check the SuperWaba site, menu PLATFORM / FEATURES.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20031110

I can't access pilot.programmer.waba using a newsgroup reader. Can't I post messages from the Internet?

You can post messages from here. But please note that sometimes there's a delay to display the message or it is simply lost. Note also that it contains less than 50% of the messages.

IMPORTANT: do not use this, because GOOGLE points to the old falch.net server, not to the current superwaba.net one. So, posting there will not be viewed by the majority of the community.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20030411

I found a bug in the VM that is makes impossible to continue my project development, I don't know how to fix it and I can't wait for a new VM release!

No pain! Just buy a support package at the SW site. A support incident has maximum priority for us, so we'll stop everything we're doing to find a solution for your problems. After the bug is fixed, a new VM will then be sent to you.

Of course, you can always look at the Codev section of the SuperWabaWiki site and at least try to fix it...

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20030221

Whats the difference between Waba and SuperWaba?

Since Waba 1.0b was released, in 14 Feb 2000, it has not been enhanced by Rick Wild, its creator. There was a people that enhanced the 1.0b version a bit, at http://waba.sourceforge.net, but they also have not enhanced it since may 2001. SuperWaba, in contrast, from version 1.0G to 3.3, had about 31 releases! More than one per month (1.0G was released in July 2002). Below is a table with some major differences between SuperWaba and Waba.

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20030130

I'm curious... how big is the SuperWaba community?

Here are the statistics from January 2002 to September 2004:

Total number of members:

Subscribed Members per month:

2002

Number of versions released in:

Total number of countries: 148 (counting only the ones with 3 or more subscribed users)

Top five countries:

2002

2003-2004

Number of users that downloaded each version:

* The number of downloads also depends on how much time the version was available for download.

Site statistics for visits

Go to TOP - Sent by: guich@20030216 updated in 20041002

GUI Questions

Question

Can't the ListBox^? have horizontal scroll?

Starting on version 5.0, we added this possibility. The ListBox^? itself does NOT have the horizontal scroll mechanism, but you can easily add it with two new methods. Next, the sample, taken from sdk/src/java/superwaba.ext.xplat.unit.SWUnit.java:

Add the ListBox^?, then add a horizontal scrollbar near it:

      add(sbHoriz = new ScrollBar(ScrollBar.HORIZONTAL));
      sbHoriz.setRect(LEFT,AFTER,FILL-2,PREFERRED);
      sbHoriz.setLiveScrolling(true);

      // update the horizontal scroller
      int needed = lb.getNeededHorizontalScrollValue(); // get maximum text size for the listbox
      if (needed <= 0) 
      {
         sbHoriz.setEnabled(false);
         sbHoriz.setValue(sbHoriz.getMaximum());
      }
      else
      {
         sbHoriz.setEnabled(true);
         sbHoriz.setMaximum(needed);
         sbHoriz.setMaximum(sbHoriz.getVisibleItems()+needed); // set again, bc we must include the visible items
         sbHoriz.setValue(0);
      }

   public void onEvent(Event e)
   {
      if (e.type == ControlEvent.PRESSED)
      {
         ...
         if (e.target == sbHoriz)
         {
            lb.setOffset(-sbHoriz.getValue()); // scroll the text
            lb.repaintNow();
         }

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20041225

How can I develop better cross platform user interface apps?

Use the SuperWaba User Interface Guidelines, placing controls in a relative-to-the-last manner. There is a great tutorial for this, the SuperWaba User Interface Tutorial, that is included in the SuperWaba Companion.pdf

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

What is the difference between the onStart method and the Constructor. As I noticed, they both execute where I run my appllication!

The constructor is executed first, and onStart immediately after. In the device, there is really no difference at all; But in the desktop, the Graphics object is available only in the onStart method; so, if you use a bitmap splash screen, you must put your initialization code in the onStart method, otherwise, it will not be shown.

Go to TOP

I added various containers to my (Main)Window, but some controls are not working well (are not throwing events or are not responding to clicks). What's wrong?

Be sure that the containers which are siblings, ie, have the same parent, are not OVERLAPPED. Be also sure that the container's bounds are correctly set.

Go to TOP

I'm having problems in using Window.pumpEvents.

Are you calling Window.pumpEvents() anywhere from within a SW Thread? You have to be careful when calling pumpEvents from within a SW Thread. Threads are also executed within pumpEvents() (so that threads will continue running while a blocking modal is open), and if your thread calls pumpEvents() without doing any kind of checking, pumpEvents() will then call your thread, which will call pumpEvents(), which will call your thread, etc, until stack overflow.

Another check you should always do is to surround pumpEvents() in a check for Event.isAvailable(), as pumpEvents() may block (on some systems) until an event is available. In other words, unless you are willing for pumpEvents() to block (not return) until an event is available, do this:

   if (Event.isAvailable())

      Window.pumpEvents();

   Vm.sleep(10);

The Vm.sleep() allows background events such as dialogue processing to occurr.

Also, timer events are handled very similar to threads in SW so that if you have an unchecked Window.pumpEvents() inside of a timer event, you could have the same problem with infinite recursion. This is not to say you can't put Window.pumpEvents() in a timer or thread, you just have to be careful that you do not call Window.pumpEvents() every time the timer or thread executes.

Go to TOPAdded by anodos@20021005 annotated by VikOlliver@20051117

I'm using remove and add to swap two screens but nothing happens.

Are your screens extending waba.ui.Container? Don't extend Window classes to add them to the MainWindow^? - typically this will cause eveything in the new window to shift downwards a few lines. Window classes must be used only as Popup Windows.

Also, use the MainWindow^?.swap command (see examples/ContainerSwitch)

Go to TOP- Sent by: PeterCarrol^?@20010205

How can I avoid flickering in my Window?

Use setDoubleBuffer(true) method in your application's MainWindow^? class constructor

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

When I change the text of a control (E.g.: a Button) to a bigger text length, the text appears clipped!

SuperWaba controls do not update its size when a setText or equivalent method is called. To resize the control, use this after the setText or setImage:

   myBtn.setText("a text bigger than before!");
   Coord c = myBtn.getPos();
   myBtn.setRect(c.x,c.y,PREFERRED,PREFERRED);

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20021205

Question

Whats the difference between TabBar^?/Tab and TabPanel^??

TabPanel^? was introduced in SuperWaba to help the creating of tabs, by creating it given a title array. This example was taked from the TabPanel^? documentation:

   public class MyProgram extends MainWindow
   {
      TabPanel tp;

      public void onStart()
      {
         String tabs[] = new String[]{"One","Two"};
         tp = new TabPanel(tabs);
         tp.setRect(10, 10, 80, 120);
         tp.setGaps(2,2,2,2);
         tp.getPanel(0).add(0,new Edit(),0,0);
         tp.getPanel(1).add(0,new Label("Hi!"),0,0);
         add(tabBar);
      }

      public void onEvent(Event event)
      {
         if (event.type == ControlEvent.PRESSED && event.target == tp)
         {
            int activeIndex = tp.getActiveTab();
            ... handle tab being pressed
         }
      }
   }

Go to TOP- Sent by: guich@20010203

How can I create a popup window in SuperWaba?

Please see the waba.ui.InputDialog, waba.ui.MessageBox and waba.ui.Window classes. There is also a version called MessageBoxChunky in the free program downloads on the SuperWaba web site. BTW, the popup windows looks like this:

   class TestWindow extends Window
   {
      Button btnHi;
      public TestWindow()
      {
         super("Test",TAB_ONLY_BORDER); // with caption and borders
         setRect(CENTER,CENTER,Settings.screenWidth/2,Settings.screenHeight/4);
         add(btnHi=new Button("Hi!"));
         btnHi.setRect(CENTER,CENTER,PREFERRED,PREFERRED);
      }
      public void onEvent(Event event)
      {
         if (event.type == ControlEvent.PRESSED && event.target == btnHi)
            unpop(); // a WINDOW_CLOSED event will be posted to this

                     // PARENT window by the Window class.
      }
   }

   class MyApp extends MainWindow
   {
      TestWindow tw;
      public void onStart()
      {
         popupModal(tw = new TestWindow());
      }
      public void onEvent(Event event)
      {
         if (event.target == tw && event.type == ControlEvent.WINDOW_CLOSED)
         {
            tw = null; // or any other stuff
         }
      }
   }

Button.commonGap = 2;
// construct and add your Combo/Listbox to the container
Button.commonGap = 0; // reset it.

   public MyWindow()
   {
      super("My Win",RECT_BORDER);
      highResPrepared = true;

      // test if we're running in Sony devices, with big fonts
      boolean higherResolution = fmH > 11;
      float factor = (float)fmH / 11f;
      int w = (int)(100 * factor);
      int h = (int)(120 * factor);
      setRect(CENTER,CENTER,w,h);
      ...

  rundemo /w 320 /h 320 /scale 1 /useSonyFonts /bpp 8

  rundemo /w 240_or_480_or_640 /h 320_or_anything /scale 1 /bpp 8

<target name="run-init" depends="build-init">
  <property name="applet.scale"  value="1"/>
  <property name="applet.bpp"    value="8"/>
  <property name="applet.width"  value="320"/>
  <property name="applet.height" value="320"/>
  <property name="applet.uiStyle" value="WinCE"/>
  <property name="applet.useSonyFonts" value=""/>
</target>

   public void onStart() {
      /* Now we get our client rect, excluding the border and the title */
      Rect r = getClientRect();
      /* Prepare the splash screen. */
      splash=new SplashScreen();   // A Container
      splash.setRect(r);
      /* Swap in the SplashScreen module. */
      swap(splash);

   }

   public void onExit()  {
   setStatePosition(0,Window.VK_BOTTOM);
   }

   String creator = "xxxx";
   String type = "MyDa"; // stands for My Data

   cat = new Catalog(type+"."+creator+"."+type,Catalog.CREATE);

   // open the catalog
   String creator = waba.sys.Settings.appCreatorId;
   String type = "MyDa"; // stands for My Data
   Catalog cat = new Catalog(type+"."+creator+"."+type,Catalog.CREATE);
   DataStream ds = new DataStream(cat);
   // read from it
   if (cat.setRecordPos(0)) // read record 0 - if it exists
   {
      int anInt = ds.readInt();
      String aString = ds.readString();
   }
   cat.close();

   // open the catalog
   String creator = waba.sys.Settings.appCreatorId;
   String type = "MyDa"; // stands for My Data
   Catalog cat = new Catalog(type+"."+creator+"."+type,Catalog.CREATE);
   ResizeStream rs = new ResizeStream(cat,256);
   DataStream ds = new DataStream(rs);
   // part 2
   int anInt = 334455;
   String aString = "HI world!";
   if (cat.setRecordPos(0)) // delete it first
      cat.deleteRecord();
   if (rs.startRecord(0)) // reinsert it in this index
   {
      ds.writeInt(anInt);
      ds.writeString(aString);
      rs.endRecord();
   }
   cat.close();

   cat.setRecordPos(0);
   cat.deleteRecord();

   public void onExit()
   {
      Vm.sleep(10);
      strEditText = edit.getText();
      writeRecord(prepareRecord(),recIdx);
   }

   public static void main(String args[])
   {
      waba.applet.JavaBridge.setNonGUIApp();
      waba.io.Catalog cat = new waba.io.Catalog("\\superwaba\\classes\\Pupil.Font.Font",
                                                waba.io.Catalog.READ_ONLY);
      if (cat.isOpen())
         debug("ok, is open");
      else

         debug("not opened!");
   }

   // here is an example of use:
   // if (findByBinarySearch(barcode) == -1)
   // {
   //    /*ERROR*/
   // }
   // else
   // {
   //    /*GET RECORD*/
   // }

   private int findByBinarySearch(String barcode)
   {
      int numRecords = cat.getRecordCount();
      int lowpos = 0;
      int highpos = numRecords - 1;
      int currentpos = 0;
      String key;

      while(true)
      {
         currentpos = (lowpos + highpos) / 2;
         cat.setRecordPos(currentpos);
         key = ds.readString();

         if (key.equals(barcode))
            return currentpos;
         if (highpos == lowpos + 1)
            lowpos = highpos;
         else
         if (lowpos == highpos) // not found
            return -1;
         else
         if (barcode.compareTo(key) > 0)
            highpos = currentpos;
         else
            lowpos = currentpos;
      }
   }

\jdk1.2.2\bin\java -classpath \jdk1.2.2\lib\rt.jar;\superwaba\bin;\superwaba\classes;.
    Warp c VPFinance versapalm/finance/VPFinance.class
\jdk1.2.2\bin\java -classpath \jdk1.2.2\lib\rt.jar;\superwaba\bin;\superwaba\classes;.
    Exegen "Finance" versapalm/finance/VPFinance VPFinance

case vchrNavChange: // 5-way
   ...
   break;

     <javac srcdir="C:\DATA\Development\eclipse\workspace\PocketELZE\src" 
          destdir="build" 
          target="1.1"
          fork="yes"
          executable="C:\java\jdk131\bin\javac.exe"
          compiler="javac1.1">
          <include name="**/*.java"/>
          <classpath refid="classpath"/>
     </javac>

   package mgenix;

   import waba.ui.*;
   // the correct example should be a package with more than 190 characters

   import com.mediageniz.vision.visioningApplication;

   public class VisionApp extends visioningApplication
   {
      public void onStart()
      {

         super();
      }
   }

Warp c Test Test.class

set JAVA_COMPILER=NONE

    <!-- Execute WARP -->
    <target name="warp" depends="jar">
        <java dir="build" classname="Warp" fork="true" classpathref="utils">
            <arg value="c"/>
            <arg value="/lg"/>
            <arg value="${ant.project.name}"/>
            <arg value="${ant.project.name}.jar"/>
        </java>
    </target>

SyncManager.SyncReadAppPreference

SyncManager.readAppPreferences