Getting Description information

Helper

On 16/07/2013 at 10:46, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

1717856114 == 'fdgr' == DESC_UNIT_DEGREE

Hi Niklas,
I have to say this: plus this:

I never thought that this huge number had any meaning, as long as the other constants are so low. So I had the answer there after all, I just overlooked it! I am a C++ beginner, indeed. I wonder why Maxon uses multi-character constants, what purpose they serve. Nevertheless, I got what I wished for and will experiment further.
Thanks a lot!!
And thanks to Giblet too, very useful code you posted!

Helper

On 22/07/2013 at 06:01, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Howdy,

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

... I wonder why Maxon uses multi-character constants, what purpose they serve...

So you can do something like this:

switch(bc->GetLong(DESC_UNIT)
{
	case DESC_UNIT_REAL:
		GePrint("Real");
		break;
	case DESC_UNIT_LONG:
		GePrint("Long");
		break;
	case DESC_UNIT_PERCENT:
		GePrint("Percent");
		break;
	case DESC_UNIT_DEGREE:
		GePrint("Degree");
		break;
	case DESC_UNIT_METER:
		GePrint("Meter");
		break;
	case DESC_UNIT_TIME:
		GePrint("Time");
		break;
}

If any of the defined constant values are changed in the future, the above code would still work.

You really need not worry about what a defined constant's value is, because you can use the definition "DESC_UNIT_DEGREE" in your code (as in the above code). The use of the value of 'fdgr' may only be a convenience to the original programmer for debugging purposes or something.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

Helper

On 22/07/2013 at 07:05, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi Dan,
thanks!
I am not "worrying" about anything in particular, but I am, and have always been, very curious! I always want to open the lid, to watch inside. That slows me often down, with most of the things I do. Making things work, is not enough for me, I want to find out why and because
My plugins were mostly done, mostly working well, already in June. But I and diving into stuff all the time, do I see a yet another door, I just have to open it!

Helper

On 22/07/2013 at 11:01, xxxxxxxx wrote:

I think the question was more like "why multi character constants instead of any other integral numbers"?
Well, it's like choosing between octal, decimal and hexadecimal.

Helper

On 24/07/2013 at 06:54, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Howdy,

Well, your curiosity got my curiosity up, and I found this from a c++ forum:

Question:
I'm curious about this code:
cout << 'test'; // Note the single quotes.
gives me an output of 1952805748.
My question: Is the output an address in memory or something?

Answer:
No, it's not an address. It's the so-called multibyte character.
Typically, it's the ASCII values of the four characters combined.
't' == 0x74; 'e' == 0x65; 's' == 0x73; 't' == 0x74; So 0x74657374 is 1952805748.

According to Bjarne Stroustrup (the author of c++) in his book "The C++ Programming Language", the use of the ' operator declares a character literal and that character literals are mainly used to make programs more portable.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

Helper

On 25/07/2013 at 15:14, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Great Dan,
reminds me of the old days when I programmed in assembler. I used a decimal number to search for a four characters long string in a file.

Helper

On 25/07/2013 at 16:26, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Are they using mulichars in the ListView gizmo?

This is in the ge_prepass.h file:

    LV_COLUMN_TEXT      = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'t','x','t'),  
  LV_COLUMN_EDITTEXT  = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'e','d','t'),  
  LV_COLUMN_BMP       = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'b','m','p'),  
  LV_COLUMN_CHECKBOX  = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'c','h','k'),  
  LV_COLUMN_BUTTON    = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'b','t','n'),  
  LV_COLUMN_USERDRAW  = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'u','s','r'),  
  LV_COLUMN_COLORVIEW = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'c','l','v'),

Does this mean that each char inside of the parenthesis () is a hexidecimal representaion of an ID#?
The "C4D_FOUR_BYTE" code is very odd looking code to me too.

-ScottA

Helper

On 26/07/2013 at 08:55, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

Are they using mulichars in the ListView gizmo?

This is in the ge_prepass.h file:
    LV_COLUMN_TEXT      = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'t','x','t'),  
  LV_COLUMN_EDITTEXT  = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'e','d','t'),  
  LV_COLUMN_BMP       = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'b','m','p'),  
  LV_COLUMN_CHECKBOX  = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'c','h','k'),  
  LV_COLUMN_BUTTON    = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'b','t','n'),  
  LV_COLUMN_USERDRAW  = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'u','s','r'),  
  LV_COLUMN_COLORVIEW = C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'c','l','v'),
Does this mean that each char inside of the parenthesis () is a hexadecimal representation of an ID#?
The "C4D_FOUR_BYTE" code is very odd looking code to me too.

Hi Scott,

C4D_FOUR_BYTE is used to define multi-character constants from 3 characters only because writing

LV_COLUMN_TEXT = 'txt'

won't give a valid and unique constant.
You can see that it's used in only one another place to define QUICKTAB_BAR:

#define QUICKTAB_BAR    C4D_FOUR_BYTE(0,'b','a','r')

Helper

On 26/07/2013 at 09:56, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thanks for the answer Yannick.

Is it safe to use the C4D_FOUR_BYTE() function in our plugins if we wanted. Or is it something that we should not use?

-ScottA

Helper

On 26/07/2013 at 10:17, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

Is it safe to use the C4D_FOUR_BYTE() function in our plugins if we wanted. Or is it something that we should not use?

Yes you can use the macro C4D_FOUR_BYTE in 3rd party plugins.

Helper

On 26/07/2013 at 10:41, xxxxxxxx wrote:

OK.
Thanks.

-ScottA