AmiWest 2013 Lesson 3

ProcTree Redux

Working with AmigaOS GUIs can be quite challenging. There are several toolkits available including the original Intuition, GadTools, basic BOOPSI, ReAction and MUI. Although all toolkits are still available, new applications should use either ReAction or MUI for best results.

This tutorial will focus on using ReAction to create a simple GUI. The GUI displays and automatically updates the system Process tree. This simple example touches on many aspects of AmigaOS programming. Full source code is available from here.

Topics explored include:

• C library provided interfaces
• Embedded version string
• Stack cookie
• stdio window control
• Startup from Shell and Workbench
• Opening/Closing BOOPSI classes correctly
• BOOPSI class interfaces
• MEMF_PRIVATE data
• Exec lists
• ReAction GUIs using window.class
• Deferred GUI refreshing
• Hierarchical listbrowser
• BOOPSI object user data fields
• Process break signals
• Process list change notification
• Listbrowser labels detachment and reattachment
• Refreshing a BOOPSI object
• Process IDs
• Exec objects (LIST, HOOK, NODE)
• Proper GUI cleanup and exit