how can buttons allways stay above other buttons?

[sandin]

I'm trying to make a virtual keyboard (like a piano), and the black keys needs to stay above white keys, so how can I make them (black keys) stay above?

And is it posible to change the button's look? I wanna make them look like buttons in the VB, the old type, squared, with sharp edges.

[SadBunny]

I'm trying to make a virtual keyboard (like a piano), and the black keys needs to stay above white keys, so how can I make them (black keys) stay above?

And is it posible to change the button's look? I wanna make them look like buttons in the VB, the old type, squared, with sharp edges.

Well, GuiCtrlCreateGraphic might be useful for creating the rectangles that represent the piano buttons. (You can customize their colors and such).

But the catch is they can't overlap if you want to be able to click them, which might be a pain for a piano keyboard, since I guess you would want to first draw the white keys and then "overlappingly" draw the black keys over them (to make it look&feel more real). This will look nice (I tried it) but the thing is that it seems that since the white keys are drawn first, they will register even if you click on the black keys. Meaning that you will have to find some sort of workaround like defining the key areas and then calculating in which was clicked, or giving them all a slightly different color, or anything else by which you can distinguish the keys.

[SadBunny]

Well, GuiCtrlCreateGraphic might be useful for creating the rectangles that represent the piano buttons. (You can customize their colors and such).

But the catch is they can't overlap if you want to be able to click them, which might be a pain for a piano keyboard, since I guess you would want to first draw the white keys and then "overlappingly" draw the black keys over them (to make it look&feel more real). This will look nice (I tried it) but the thing is that it seems that since the white keys are drawn first, they will register even if you click on the black keys. Meaning that you will have to find some sort of workaround like defining the key areas and then calculating in which was clicked, or giving them all a slightly different color, or anything else by which you can distinguish the keys.

BTW this is what I came up with to create the gui for a very crude, simple piano. Is this what you sort-of meant it to be?

#include <array.au3>
HotKeySet("{ESC}","exiting")

$mainGui = GUICreate("piano",400,300)

Dim $key[13],$note[13]
$whitekeys = _ArrayCreate(0,2,4,5,7,9,11,12)
$blackkeys = _ArrayCreate(1,3,6,8,10)
$keyNames = _ArrayCreate("C","#C","D","#D","E","F","#F","G","#G","A","#A","B","C")

$counter = 0

For $x In $whitekeys
    $key[$x] = GUICtrlCreateGraphic(40+40*$counter,10,39,170)
    GUICtrlSetBkColor($key[$x],255+256*255+65536*255)
    $counter += 1
Next

For $x In $blackkeys
    $key[$x] = GUICtrlCreateGraphic(45+40*$x/2+Int($x / 6)*20,10,30,100)
    GUICtrlSetBkColor($key[$x],0)
Next

GUISetState()

While 1
    Sleep(10)
WEnd

Func Exiting()
    Exit
EndFunc

Edited April 1, 2007 by SadBunny

[martin]

deleted because double posted

Edited April 1, 2007 by martin

[martin]

Here is a way to get the sounds from SadBunny's post. The frequencies are just to get something to work, and you need to check for a mouse button press before playing the sound etc, but anyway this is just to demonstrate the idea.

expandcollapse popup

#include <array.au3>
#include <GUIConstants.au3>
#include <_ControlHover.au3>


$mainGui = GUICreate("piano",400,300)

Dim $key[13],$note[13]
$whitekeys = _ArrayCreate(0,2,4,5,7,9,11,12)
$blackkeys = _ArrayCreate(1,3,6,8,10)
$keyNames = _ArrayCreate("C","#C","D","#D","E","F","#F","G","#G","A","#A","B","C")
$Button_1 = GUICtrlCreateButton ("Button 1",  50, 30, 100, 20)
$counter = 0

For $x In $whitekeys
    $key[$x] = GUICtrlCreateGraphic(40+40*$counter,10,39,170)
    GUICtrlSetBkColor($key[$x],255+256*255+65536*255)
    $counter += 1
Next

For $x In $blackkeys
    $key[$x] = GUICtrlCreateGraphic(50+40*$x/2+Int($x / 6)*20,10,20,100)
    GUICtrlSetBkColor($key[$x],0)
Next

GUISetState()
$dll = dllopen("user32.dll")


While 1
    $msg1 = GUIGetMsg()
    If $msg1 = $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE Then
        ExitLoop
    EndIf
    $w = WindowFromPoint()
    if $w = GUICtrlGetHandle($Button_1) then beep(600,40)
    for $dd = 0 to 12
        $GuiHnd = GUICtrlGetHandle ($key[$dd])
        if $w = $GuiHnd Then
            beep(200+10*$dd,30)
        EndIf
    Next

WEnd

dllclose($dll)

Func WindowFromPoint()
    Local $point, $cHwnd, $hwnd, $pos, $size
    $point = MouseGetPos()
    $hwnd = DLLCall($dll, "hwnd", "WindowFromPoint", "int", $point[0], "int", $point[1])

    If $hwnd[0] <> 0 Then
        $pos = WinGetPos($hwnd[0])
        If @error Then Return 0
        $size = WinGetClientSize($hwnd[0])
        If @error Then Return 0
        $pos[0] += (($pos[2] - $size[0]) / 2)
        $pos[1] += (($pos[3] - $size[1]) - (($pos[2] - $size[0]) / 2))
        $cHwnd = DLLCall($dll,"hwnd","RealChildWindowFromPoint","hwnd",$hwnd[0], _
                "int",$point[0] - $pos[0],"int",$point[1] - $pos[1])
        If $cHwnd[0] <> 0 Then $hwnd[0] = $cHwnd[0]
    EndIf


    Return $hwnd[0]
EndFunc

[martin]

That one didn't quite work. This one detects the black keys better.

expandcollapse popup

#include <array.au3>
#include <GUIConstants.au3>
#include <_ControlHover.au3>
;HotKeySet("{ESC}","exiting")

$mainGui = GUICreate("piano",400,300)


Dim $key[13],$note[13]
$whitekeys = _ArrayCreate(0,2,4,5,7,9,11,12)
$blackkeys = _ArrayCreate(1,3,6,8,10)
$keyNames = _ArrayCreate("C","#C","D","#D","E","F","#F","G","#G","A","#A","B","C")
$Button_1 = GUICtrlCreateButton ("Button 1",  50, 30, 100, 20)
$counter = 0

For $x In $whitekeys
    $key[$x] = GUICtrlCreateGraphic(40+40*$counter,10,39,170)
    GUICtrlSetBkColor($key[$x],255+256*255+65536*255)
    $counter += 1
Next

For $x In $blackkeys
    $key[$x] = GUICtrlCreateGraphic(50+40*$x/2+Int($x / 6)*20,10,20,100)
    GUICtrlSetBkColor($key[$x],0)
Next
for $dd = 0 to 12
    _ControlHover(2, "", $key[$dd])
Next
GUISetState()


While 1
    $msg1 = GUIGetMsg()
    If $msg1 = $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE Then
        ExitLoop
    EndIf
     $Over = _ControlHover(0, $mainGui)
        If $Over = 1 Then
            
;if $w = GUICtrlGetHandle($Button_1) then beep(600,40)
    for $dd = 0 to 12
        If @extended = $key[$dd] then
            beep(200+10*$dd,30)
            guictrlsetdata($Button_1,$keyNames[$dd])
        EndIf
    Next

EndIf

WEnd