Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDefs.h

These constants define the alignment data type. They determine how lines of text and labels are aligned by BTextView, BStringView, and BMenuField objects.

See also: BTextView::SetAlignment()

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDefs.h

These constants define the button_width type. They determine how the width of a set of buttons will be set—whether they're set to a minimal width, a width just sufficient to accommodate the button's own label, or a width sufficient to accommodate the widest label of all the buttons.

The constants are used by the BAlert and BTabView classes.

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDefs.h

These constants define how BBox objects and BScrollViews are bordered.

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDefs.h

Constants in the first group stand for the ASCII characters they name. They're defined only for characters that normally don't have visible symbols.

Constants in the second group are Unicode UTF-8 encodings of common characters that have multibyte representations. These constants are strings that can be concatenated with other strings—for example, to set a button label that ends in an ellipsis:

myButton->SetLabel("Options"B_UTF_ELLIPSIS);

See also: "Function Key Constants" below

Declared in: be/interface/GraphicsDefs.h

These constants define the color_space data type. A color space describes three properties of screens and bitmap images:

A number of these aren't actually usable as screen display color spaces, but are intended for use in identifying the color format for video media buffers and other offscreen graphics data.

See the "Color Spaces" section in the "Drawing" section of this chapter for a fuller explanation of these color spaces.

See also: the BBitmap and BScreen classes

Declared in: be/interface/Control.h

These constants define the bipolar states of a typical control device.

See also: BControl::SetValue()

Declared in: be/interface/View.h

These constants describe the cursor's transit through a view. Each MouseMoved() notification includes one of these constants as an argument, to inform the BView whether the cursor has entered the view, moved while inside the view, or exited the view.

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDefs.h

These constants determine which combinations of modifiers can cause a key to be the "dead" member of a two-key combination.

See also: get_key_map()

Declared in: be/interface/GraphicsDefs.h

These constants define the drawing_mode data type. The drawing mode is a BView graphics parameter that determines how the image being drawn interacts with the image already in place in the area where it's drawn. The various modes are explained under "Drawing Modes" in the "Drawing" section of this chapter.

See also: BView::SetDrawingMode()

Declared in: be/interface/Font.h

These constants tell whether a font is used for text that's read left-to-right or right-to-left. Thus is an inherent property of the font.

See also: BFont::Direction()

Declared in: be/interface/Font.h

The constants name the various character encodings that the BeOS supports. B_UNICODE_UTF8 is the default encoding. It matches ASCII values for 7-bit character codes but uses multiple bytes to encode other values in the Unicode standard.

See also: BFont::SetEncoding(), the "Character Encoding" section of this chapter

Declared in: be/interface/Font.h

The first flag, B_DISABLE_ANTIALIASING, is passed to a BFont object to turn antialiasing off. Antialiasing should be turned off when printing, but should generally be left on when drawing to the screen.

The other two flags enable get_font_family() and get_font_style() to give information about a font. B_IS_FIXED indicates that the font is nonproportional. B_HAS_TUNED_FONT indicates that the family or style has one or more tuned fonts—bitmap fonts that have been adjusted to look good on the screen—for some set of font properties (such as size and shear).

See also: BFont::SetFlags()

Declared in: be/interface/Font.h

These constants define the maximum length of names for font families and styles, exclusive of a null terminator. They're used in the definition of the font_family and font_style types.

See also: font_family under "Defined Types" below

Declared in: be/interface/View.h

These constants list the font properites that can be set for a BView individually or in combination. The constants form a mask that's passed, along with a BFont object, to BView's BView and BTextView's SetFontAndColor() functions. For example:

myView->SetFont(theFont, B_FONT_SIZE | B_FONT_ENCODING);

B_FONT_ALL stands for all properties of the BFont.

Declared in: be/interface/Font.h

These constants enumerate the four modes for positioning characters in a line of text.

See also: BFont::SetSpacing()

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDefs.h

These constants stand for the various keys that are mapped to the B_FUNCTION_KEY character. When the B_FUNCTION_KEY character is reported in a key-down event, the application can determine which key produced the character by testing the key code against these constants. ( Control+p also produces the B_FUNCTION_KEY character.)

See also: "Character Mapping" in the Keyboard Information appendix

Declared in: be/app/AppDefs.h

These constants identify interface messages—system messages that are delivered to BWindow objects. Each constant conveys an instruction to do something in particular (B_ZOOM) or names a type of event (B_KEY_DOWN).

See also: "Interface Messages" in the "Responding to the User" section of this chapter

Declared in: be/interface/ListView.h

These constants distinguish between lists that permit the user to select only one item at a time and those that allow multiple items to be selected.

See also: The BListView class

Declared in: be/interface/Screen.h

const screen_id B_MAIN_SCREEN_ID

This constant stands for the main screen, the screen that has the origin of the screen coordinate system at its left top corner. (Currently only one screen can be attached to the computer and it is the main screen.)

See also: screen_id

Declared in: be/interface/MenuBar.h

These constants can be passed as an argument to BMenuBar's SetBorder() function.

Declared in: be/interface/Menu.h

These constants define the menu_layout data type. They distinguish the ways that items can be arranged in a menu or menu bar—they can be laid out from end to end in a row like a typical menu bar, stacked from top to bottom in a column like a typical menu, or arranged in some custom fashion like a matrix.

See also: The BMenu and BMenuBar constructors

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDef.h

These constants designate the Shift, Option, Control, Command, and Menu modifier keys and the lock states set by the Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, and Num Lock keys. They're typically used to form a mask that describes the current, or required, modifier states.

For each variety of modifier key, there are constants that distinguish between the keys that appear at the left and right of the keyboard, as well as one that lumps both together. For example, if the user is holding the left Control key down, both B_CONTROL_KEY and B_LEFT_CONTROL_KEY will be set in the mask.

See also: modifiers(), BWindow::AddShortcut(), the BMenu constructor

Declared in: be/interface/View.h

These constants name the mouse buttons. Buttons are identified, not by their physical positions on the mouse, but by their roles in the user interface.

See also: BView::GetMouse(), set_mouse_map()

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDef.h

These constants define the orientation data type that distinguishes between the vertical and horizontal orientation of graphic objects. It's currently used only to differentiate scroll bars.

See also: The BScrollBar and BScrollView classes

Declared in: be/interface/GraphicsDef.h

const pattern B_SOLID_HIGH =
    { 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff,0xff, 0xff, 0xff }

const pattern B_SOLID_LOW =
    { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 }

const pattern B_MIXED_COLORS =
    { 0xaa, 0x55, 0xaa, 0x55, 0xaa, 0x55, 0xaa, 0x55 }

These constants name the three standard patterns defined in the Interface Kit.

B_SOLID_HIGH is a pattern that consists of the high color only. It's the default pattern for all BView drawing functions that stroke lines and fill shapes.

B_SOLID_LOW is a pattern with only the low color. It's used mainly to erase images (to replace them with the background color).

B_MIXED_COLORS alternates pixels between the high and low colors in a checkerboard pattern. The result is a halftone midway between the two colors. This pattern can produce fine gradations of color, especially when the high and low colors are set to two colors that are already quite similar.

See also: "Patterns" in the "Drawing" section of this chapter

Declared in: be/interface/View.h

These constants are used to set the behavior of a view when its parent is resized. They're explained under the BView constructor.

See also: BView::SetResizingMode()

Declared in: be/interface/GraphicsDef.h

B_8_BIT_640x400
B_8_BIT_640x480    B_15_BIT_640x480
B_16_BIT_640x480   B_32_BIT_640x480
B_8_BIT_800x600    B_15_BIT_800x600
B_16_BIT_800x600   B_32_BIT_800x600
B_8_BIT_1024x768   B_15_BIT_1024x768
B_16_BIT_1024x768  B_32_BIT_1024x768
B_8_BIT_1152x900   B_15_BIT_1152x900
B_16_BIT_1152x900  B_32_BIT_1152x900
B_8_BIT_1280x1024  B_15_BIT_1280x1024
B_16_BIT_1280x1024 B_32_BIT_1280x1024
B_8_BIT_1600x1200  B_15_BIT_1600x1200
B_16_BIT_1600x1200 B_32_BIT_1600x1200

These constants are currently used to configure the screen—to set its depth and the size of the pixel grid it displays—as well as to report which configurations are possible. However, they may not be supported in the future. 15-bit depths are not currently supported

See also: set_screen_space(), get_screen_info().

Declared in: be/interface/ScrollBar.h

These constants record the recommended thickness of scroll bars. They should be used to help define the frame rectangles passed to the BScrollBar constructor.

Declared in: be/interface/Font.h

These constants instruct a BFont where it should remove characters from a set of strings to shorten them.

See also: BFont::GetTruncatedStrings()

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDefs.h

These constants are used when calling tint_color() to alter an existing color, especially for creating disabled objects or highlighting backgrounds.

Declared in: be/interface/GraphicsDefs.h

const uint8 B_TRANSPARENT_8_BIT
const rgb_color B_TRANSPARENT_32_BIT

These constants set transparent pixel values in a bitmap image. B_TRANSPARENT_8_BIT designates a transparent pixel in the B_CMAP8 color space, and B_TRANSPARENT_32_BIT designates a transparent pixel in the B_RGB32 color space.

Transparency is explained in the "Drawing Modes" part of the "Drawing" section of this chapter. Drawing modes other than B_OP_COPY preserve the destination image where a source bitmap is transparent.

See also: "Drawing Modes" in the "Drawing" section of this chapter, the BBitmap class, BView::SetViewColor()

Declared in: be/interface/InterfaceDefs.h

When calling ui_color() to obtain the color for a user interface element, these constants are used to select the desired element.

Declared in: be/interface/View.h

These constants can be combined to form a mask that sets the behavior of a BView object. They're explained in more detail under the class constructor. The mask is passed to the constructor, or to the SetFlags() function.

Declared in: be/interface/Window.h

These constants set the behavior of a window. They can be combined to form a mask that's passed to the BWindow constructor.

Declared in: be/interface/Window.h

These constants describe the various kinds of windows that can be requested from the Application Server.

See also: The BWindow constructor

Declared in: be/interface/Window.h

These constants are used—along with designations of specific workspaces—to associate a set of one or more workspaces with a BWindow.

See also: The BWindow constructor, BWindow::SetWorkspaces()