ANIMATE WINDOW Command

 

Animates a Window when it is displayed (shown) on screen

 

 

Description:

 

This command enables a number of different types of animation to be used when a Window is displayed on screen after it is activated using the ACTIVATE WINDOW command or when it is displayed using the SHOW method

 

Syntax:

 

    ANIMATE WINDOW <cFormName1> [ INTERVAL <nMilliSeconds> ] MODE <nFlags>

 

Valid For Use With:

 

This command can be used for all definable Window types

 

Notes:

  1. This command is only available after the Window has been defined

  2. The optional INTERVAL expression enables control over how quickly or slowly the animation sequence runs. This speed is expressed in milliseconds

  3. Nine (9) different styles of animation are available. The MODE expression is used to specify which one should be used and these are contained in the i_window.ch file;

    • #define AW_HOR_POSITIVE 0x00000001
    • #define AW_HOR_NEGATIVE 0x00000002
    • #define AW_VER_POSITIVE 0x00000004
    • #define AW_VER_NEGATIVE 0x00000008
    • #define AW_CENTER       0x00000010
    • #define AW_HIDE         0x00010000
    • #define AW_ACTIVATE     0x00020000
    • #define AW_SLIDE        0x00040000
    • #define AW_BLEND        0x00080000
  4. The animation is only displayed once. Firstly, the Window should be hidden, then the ANIMATE WINDOW command is called after which the animation displays when the Window is shown again

  5. More advanced information is available in the Windows API reference for the AnimateWindow() function

  6. This documentation suggests that animation is used to display "special effects when showing or hiding windows". However, it appears that HMG may be limited to displaying such effects when showing Windows only

  7. This documentation also suggests that animation can comprise of "one or more of the" types of animation simultaneously. However, it appears that HMG may be limited to only displaying one type of effect at a time

  8. No seperate help documentation was published with the original or subsequent releases of HMG

Sample Code:

 

Sample code to test this Command can be found here