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NEXXT

Featureful NES assets studio based off the classic "NES Screen Tool". It's the "famitracker" of NES graphics. · By FrankenGraphics

Suggestion: Maximized Window / Side Snapping

A topic by grimware created Mar 09, 2024 Views: 73 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 3

Hello, thank you for all the amazing additions to the tool. I often like to snap windows left / right when working. I was wondering if maybe NEXXT would ever be maximizable and snapable windows instead of a set 'floating' size? 

Developer

Hi, and thank you. 

Long story short, i love snapped half-windows, and i've thought about it. 
It might happen one day, but it won't be soon, due to a few technical roadblocks. 

Long version:

-NEXXT builds on the same legacy GUI library as NESST, and it hasn't received updates since the 00s. As it turns out, maximized forms encounter often encounter weird performance issues when this particular library meets the two latest versions of Windows, so i'm avoiding a situation where those issues can surface.
-The ui was designed statically, ie there aren't any dockable modules to place within a parent window. This makes development easier, but transitioning to a docked fullscreen environment would require extensive rework of all the forms. There's also the design issue that nexxt/nesst are made with using multiple instances in mind, so it kind of works best with cascaded windows anyway. Split-window would be a nice compromise to that, but again, there'd be significant rework involved.

The fix to issue 1 is to port the project from Borland Builder to Embarcadero RAD tools (its direct successor) but that entails lots of work and a costly license. 
For the time being, i'm focusing on more high-gain, low-risk features until enough reasons to port it have amassed (this is also an if, rather than a when. I keep it in mind, but it must become feasible for me first). 

Thank you for the detailed response. I hope you don't mind me sharing the long version with Mugi as he seemed quite interested when we were discussing it. Your work on NEXXT has been extreamly useful recently for doing our start screen for Delta 9, our NM byte off entry.