JTools Table of Contents
Project Location: \JTools_ShellApp
This is my Generic Shell Application for running NxCore. This application features a completely detachable GUI, logging, real time simulation, delayed simulation and a variety of other options. It is the application I usually start with to build any new NxCore based application.
The following should serve as a small guide on the primary components of the Shell Application.
The Main Application Window:
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The Settings and Preferences Window:
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The INI configuration File:
Each application reads and writes the configuration information to its own INI file. The INI file is a human readable text file and as such, can safely be modified in any text editor, outside of the application. This also makes it possible to script the application(s) for batch mode processing by simply modifying the INI file and launching the application.
Look and Feel:
As the applications use the standard Windows controls, you may wish to have a slightly more modern looking GUI. To do so, look in the file stdafx.h, at the very end. Un-comment the control manifest file specification. Recompile the application and you will have a new look and feel:
| Standard look, without the control manifest file: |
More modern look using the control manifest file: |
And to get your own unique look to any application, modify the Color Properties (when running the application) in the settings and preferences dialog and have fun!
Detached GUI:
The GUI in the Shell Application is completely detached from the actual NxCore functionality. GUI functionality becomes available through the use of specific callback functions provided to the NxCore interface. As such it becomes trivial to convert the NxCore component into a console application, Windows service. etc. Build and debug any application using the GUI and then, if no GUI is required (or desired) for production take it down to where it needs to go, quickly.
I have included another small project called JTools_ShellApp_Command which is simply a straight C console application. The NxCore functionality and files are identical to the GUI driven application. As opposed to eliminating the GUI callbacks I simply re-coded them to use the C standard printf("%s\n",str) to output the strings to the console...very basic. It's even easier to eliminate the GUI completely by simply not providing the callback functions to the interface.
Project Location: \JTools_ShellApp_Console
To run the console application, firs run the JTools_ShellApp.exe GUI application. Set the preferences for what you want the console app to do (IE run from tape file, etc). Exit the GUI app and copy the JTools_ShellApp.INI file to the location of the console application. Now run the console application. It will read and process data according to the specs in JTools_ShellApp.ini.
Self Contained User/Application Data:
Because the shell application's NxCore interface uses/modifies only data passed though the main NxCore UserData pointer (when ProcessTape() is called), spinning multiple threads for the interface becomes trivial. As with the Console application I have included another project called "JTools_ShellApp_Dual". The interface has been duplicated so that the user can easilly run two NxCore interfaces both feeding data to the same application independently of one another. In the screenshot below, the 1'st system is running an historical tape full blast with the 2'nd system is running from NxAccess in real-time:
Project Location: \JTools_ShellApp_Dual
JTools Table of Contents