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A-Shell Consolidated Reference

Changed July 2013

Global attributes are signaled by a leading "@", followed by one or more clauses of the form attrib=value~, and ending with an extra ~ (two in a row). If the first character of ctext is not "@" then it is assumed there are no global attributes and parsing proceeds with the labeldefs.

Attribute

Value

Description

style

Number

sets the overall style; see descriptions in the following table (not this one)

scrollstyle

Number

sets style of scroll buttons, from following table:

"none"

No scroll buttons

0

Windows 3.1 style

1

Windows 95 style

2

Standard style

3

Windows 95 alternate style

4

Theme buttons

5

Theme/scroll

6

Hover

7

Theme/scroll alternate

bold

0/1

if 1, current label text is to be displayed in bold

xbtnVisible

0/1

if 1, an "x" button will be visible, theoretically to close the current tab. When clicked, it sends exitcode -69.

xbtnEnabled

0/1

Controls whether the "x" button is enabled or disabled

xbtnTip

text

tooltip for the "x" button

xbtnAlign

near|far|center

controls how close the "x" button is to the last tab label

themes

0/1

use visual themes or not.  (using them may disable a number of other features relating to color)

sbtn

Number
(default = 1)

scroll button options (sum of):+1=scrollable (and visible), +2=conditional visibility (only if needed), +4=buttons displayed at start/left instead of at right/end

sbtnAlign

near|far|center

same idea as xbtnAlign but for the scroll buttons

forcedSize

Number

forced height (if horizontal) or width (if vertical). Units are {milli}rows or columns, unless MBF2_PIXSIZE, in which case units are pixels.

ClientArea

0/1

determines if the tab control has a client area (attached panel). See TABSTRIP.BP in SOSLIB:[908,22] for example with ClientArea=0.

rows

Number

Number of rows of labels; may require sbtn=0; see Note1 below.

rowTabs

Number

Number of tabs per row (if fixed tabs); may require sbtn=0; see Note1 below.

fixedTabs

0/1

fixed width tabs. If fixedTabs=0, tab size will be based on the text in each tab; othewise all tabs will be same width. If rowTabs=0, tab width will be determined by actual number of tabs, spread evenly to fill the panel width. To make tab width smaller, set rowTabs larger.

multiLine

0/1

if 1, tab labels may have multiple lines using chr(13) for line break.

panelBorder

0/1

controls if panel/client area has a border

font

 

 

 

 

fontAttr

facename

{,fontattr}

 

 

 

Number

Font=facename{,fontattr} and fontAttr=# provide alternate ways of specifying the same exact set of font attributes. Use which ever form you prefer with values from the following table.

Symbol

Value

Description

FS_UPRIGHT

&h00

Normal upright

FS_ITALIC

&h01

Italic

FS_UNDERLINE

&h02

Underline

FS_STRIKEOUT

&h04

Strikeout

fontFace

facename

alternate method of specifying the label text font.

fontScale

or scale

<percent>

optional font scale to use for the label text

RGBxxx

r,g,b

All RGBxxx attributes defined for labeldefs may be used here as well.

 

Note1: Unlike the traditional Tab Control style option TCS_MULTILINE, which results in a variable number of rows of tab labels (as required to display them all), the TabX control requires, if you want multiple rows of labels instead of a single scrolling row, that you explicitly specify the number of label rows (rows=#). This is actually a sensible limitation, since each additional row of labels subtracts from the client/display area available to the panels. Without knowing how much space is available in the client/display area, it would be difficult to lay out your child controls. In situations where the number of tab labels is unknown at design time, it is probably best to stick with scrolling labels; see sbtn.

Style

The style parameters sets the overall style, using values as shown in the following table. See the TabX Operations / Examples section. Also note the following symbol naming conventions:

_ L = Tab labels on left side (instead of default which is top)
_R = Tab labels on right side
_LR = Tab labels on left and right (requires even number of tab rows)
_TB = Tab labels on top and bottom (requires even number of tab rows)
_V = Labels rotated (vertical, not compatible with multiLine attribute)

The source of these values and symbols is the included file TABX.DEF in SOSLIB:[907,16].

Symbol

Value

Description

 

Symbol

Value

Description

TBXSTY_STD

0

Standard style, labels on top

 

TBXSTY_SQ_L_V

38

 

TBXSTY_STD_L

1

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ_R

39

 

TBXSTY_STD_L_V

2

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ_R_V

40

 

TBXSTY_STD_R

3

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ_B

41

 

TBXSTY_STD_R_V

4

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ_TB

42

 

TBXSTY_STD_B

5

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ_LR_V

43

 

TBXSTY_STD_II

6

Standard style II, labels on top

 

TBXSTY_SQ2

44

Square style with edge

TBXSTY_STD_II_L

7

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ2_L

45

 

TBXSTY_STD_II_L_V

8

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ2_L_V

46

 

TBXSTY_STD_II_R

9

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ2_R

47

 

TBXSTY_STD_II_R_V

10

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ2_R_V

48

 

TBXSTY_STD_II_B

11

 

 

TBXSTY_SQ2_B

49

 

TBXSTY_WIZARD

12

(Invisible)

 

TBXSTY_SQ2_TB

50

 

TBXSTY_SIMP

13

Simple, top labels

 

TBXSTY_SQ2_LR_V

51

 

TBXSTY_SIMP_B

14

Simple, bottom labels

 

TBXSTY_LSQ

52

Another square style

TBXSTY_MOD_I

21

Modern style I, labels on

 

TBXSTY_LSQ_L

53

 

TBXSTY_MOD_I_L_V

22

 

 

TBXSTY_LSQ_L_V

54

 

TBXSTY_MOD_I_R_V

23

 

 

TBXSTY_LSQ_R

55

 

TBXSTY_MOD_I_B

24

 

 

TBXSTY_LSQ_R_V

56

 

TBXSTY_MOD_I_L

25

 

 

TBXSTY_LSQ_B

57

 

TBXSTY_MOD_I_R

26

 

 

TBXSTY_LSQ_TB

58

 

TBXSTY_SIMP_II

27

Simple II, top

 

TBXSTY_LSQ_LR_V

59

 

TBXSTY_SIMP_II_B

28

 

 

TBXSTY_MOD_II

60

Modern style II

TBXSTY_SIMP_III_B

29

Simple III, bottom

 

TBXSTY_MOD_II_L_V

61

 

TBXSTY_STD_TB

30

Standard style, top/bottom labels

 

TBXSTY_MOD_II_R_V

62

 

TBXSTY_STD_LR

31

 

 

TBXSTY_MOD_II_B

63

 

TBXSTY_STD_LR_V

32

 

 

TBXSTY_MOD_II_TB

64

 

TBXSTY_MOD_TB

33

Modern style I, top/bottom labels

 

TBXSTY_MOD_II_LR_V

65

 

TBXSTY_MOD_LR

34

 

 

TBXSTY_BTNS

66

Buttons style

TBXSTY_MOD_LR_V

35

 

 

TBXSTY_BTNS_L

67

 

TBXSTY_SQ

36

Square style

 

TBXSTY_BTNS_L_V

68

 

TBXSTY_SQ_L

37

 

 

TBXSTY_BTNS_R

69