Method for making Morphs


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Last updated at 7:24 pm UTC on 12 March 2003

Q: How do I create my own subclass of Morph?

A: I'd consider trying to implement your new scrollbars in Morphic. There are some examples there already (e.g., SliderMorph), and MorphicInterface is the wave of Squeak's future. Plus, I think you'll find it easier than working with MVC.

I usually start with an empty subclass of some generic morph like RectangleMorph or EllipseMorph
then add some instance variables
and an initialization method (e.g. a "currentPosition" variable to store the slider's position),
then a "drawOn:" method.
At that point, I make an instance in a PasteUpMorph to see what it looks like,
and possibly modify the drawOn: method.
I then add mouse behavior by overriding the mouse handling protocol. Be sure to to override "handlesMouseDown:" to return true.
Then add behavior for mouse down, move, and up.
You can also add keyboard control Morph keyboard event

It typically takes me under an hour to get a new interactive widget going, and most of that time is spent tweaking the appearance, which is rather enjoyable. It may take you longer the first time you do it, but by following the example of existing Morphs I suspect you'll have something going in under a day. – JohnMaloney

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