Whats a good way to...?

Question

Greetings everyone. I´m currently working on a IRC client using Visual Studio .NET(2003) and have encounterd somewhat of a problem. I got stuck when I was trying to make the Settings-form. The question I´m asking is what´s a good way to..well redo or change the layout and adding/or removing textboxes etc. A bad explanation? lets see if this is a better one. Take alook at the link that follows: http://ptha.mine.nu/~supertank/example.jpg I want whatever is in the red area to change when clicking on either Server Channel Setting etc. And again my question is. Whats a good way to do this any special technique? (any more questions? feel free to ask)

adb8sapa · Answer

aah Good idea. Thank you :)

spgilmore · Answer

The very coolest way that I've ever seen to do this is only available in Delphi. They're called frames. They are embeddable forms that are designed like any other form. When you're done you just drop it into a regular form. Of all the things M$ copied from others I'm disappointed that they didn't include frames in Visual Studio. Unless you've got Delphi 8 and can wrap their components for C# (or just build them in Delphi) I suggest you use Panels. Panels can do the same thing but you have to design them inside the form. It doesn't take long before you clutter it up and can't tell which panel you're editing. Here's how they work. You have a panel for each node in the treeview. Whenever a node is selected in the treeview you select the appropriate panel set its position to fill the red rectangle bring it to the front of the z-order then set its visible property to TRUE. All other panels should be invisible. Panels themselves can contain panels if that helps.