Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is that portion of the GEObject window which allows interaction with the program.
In particular:

Menu File

The Menu File lets you open and save files and exit the program

New

allows to clear the Work Area and restart with a clean sheet, loosing the previous work; a confirming dialog box is displayed

Open

displays an input dialog box, that lets you give the program the name of the file to open; if the program is running locally, that file is automatically searched in the default examples directory (ENV);

Save

displays a save dialog box, where you insert the name of the file to be saved

Exit

exit the program, without any dialog box for confirming; the code relative to all the new classes is generated, for a possible recompilation

Menu Window

The Menu Window allows easy manipulation the Work Area content, using tools and options:

Zoom in

the geometric object is redrawn smaller

Zoom out

the geometric object is redrawn bigger

Redraw

redraws the Work Area content

Cancel footsteps

erases all the footsteps from the Work Area

Name ON/OFF

shows and hides names of the geometric objects visible on the screen

Unhide object

allows to choose which geometric object is to be visible between all the hidden objects

Menu Options

The Menu Options allows some particular actions:

Collect

useful for Garbage Collection; some memory space is often allocated, but not used, slowing the work; when the program is very slow, try using this option, which make a partial garbage collection

Full Collect

this option does a full garbage collection, this takes a little bit longer than the previous option

Fast Redraw

during the animation, redraw in the screen only objects which have been moved: this allows faster animations

Select Color

allows to select colors for the GEObject window, using a colors dialog box

Menu Edit

The Menu Edit lets you modify and enlarge GEObject according to the user's demands.

Interaction Method

It's possible for the user to define a new interaction method for a class of objects, and call it as she (or he) likes.
This is an important characteristic of GEObject.
It's necessary to create the object, to construct the interaction method and then invoke this option.
The program asks to click over the prototype (the resulting object) and over the parameters (the starting object and the others entities used in the creation); when the program has enough data, a dialog box is shown, to insert the name of this new interaction method for the objects of the class.
This name will be added to the Interaction Methods Popup Menu.
To have it in the others work-sessions, the user has to recompile the program code, including also the new code generated for this new interaction method when exiting from GEObject.

Creation Method

It's possible for the user to define a new class method (i.e. a new method to construct objects of the class), and a new class (i.e. a new class of geometric objects), using this option.

To create a new class method, the user has to construct an object of the class using the new method, and after invoking this option.
The program will ask you to click on the prototype (the resulting object) and on the parameters (the starting objects used for the creation); when the program has enaugh data, a dialog box is shown, to input the name of this new class method. The other entries of the dialog box can be empty.
The name of this new class method, will be added to the Class Popup Menu.

To create a new class, the user has to construct one object of the new class desired (for example an equilateral triangle), and to invoke this option; the program will ask you to click on the prototype (i.e. the object of the new class) and on the parameters (the starting objects used for the creation); when the program has enough data, a dialog box is shown. Now, the user has to insert the name of the ancestor class (in our example, the Triangle class) and the name of the new class (the Equilateral Triangle).
The name of this new class will be added to the Class Popup Menu.

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