EQInterface Forums - Difference Between Static* and their Counterparts

10-05-2002, 10:45 AM	#1
Astryne A Snow Griffin Join Date: Aug 2002 Server: Rathe Posts: 50	*Difference Between Static and their Counterparts** So this has me stumped... I don't really see why there are the static counterparts for all of the different objects. I mean why use the static version versus the other. Since : StaticText == Label StaticScreenPiece == ScreenPiece StaticHeader == Label? (Ok, I am not sure on the counter part to this one) StaticFrame == Frame StaticAnimation == Ui2DAnimation I at first thought it was because these things never change and it actually makes sense for things like the Animation, since StaticAnimation does not include the multible frames idea. It also seems that other animations can be placed in a static animation. Ok, so that makes pseudo sense. In other places, they use StaticText for lables that will never change, again this makes sense to differentiate labels as changing text and statictext for text that never changes. However if you look at the spellbook it uses StaticText for the Spell Names. These change often and so this has me confused. In playing with the Spellbook I also found that it seems to always draw statictext first. So, are these just here to give you 2 Z layers? Anyway, maybe I am just looking at this too closely and its the normal wackiness we have come to expect from this game or am I just missing the true usefulness of these items. Any info will be useful as I am one of those types that does wonder why include these redundant features. Also if I missed it and this info is posted somewhere else, I apologize for not just reading.

10-07-2002, 02:55 PM	#2
grottel Grimling Code Editor Join Date: Sep 2002 Server: Xev Posts: 507	the SIDL.doc describes static screen pieces as read-only. To me this means the piece doesn't take any input from the User. As far screen stacking - yes they do draw first which makes sense, since these wont take any input.

10-10-2002, 11:46 AM	#3
Astryne A Snow Griffin Join Date: Aug 2002 Server: Rathe Posts: 50	I guess I am really most confused by the difference between Labels and statictext... Especially when I look at things like the Spellbook which uses statictext items for the spell names and labels for things like titles and other straight text... Then again I am not sure why I ponder the ideas of the EQ programmers (nor any programmers for that matter really). StaticAnimations make more sense the more I look at them as you can load them once and then never have to worry about them changing. The same thing for StaticHeaders as I see the static tag as more of a note that these will not change. StaticScreenPieces and StaticFrames, I can't really see a use for other than something like the map windows or trade skill windows since those just hold static images/text and as such can also be loaded once and paged out. My only conclusion on StaticText objects is the Z axis idea and that they were meant to be used in any place that was supposed to be a descriptor and then some designers were not told about them.