[The_Equivocator]

I'm programming a simple game of Connect Four for my OOD class (which is due in a couple of days), and would like to make it my first Obj-C program. The main question I have is simply an interface one. I would like to represent the board visually, with a square either being empty, have a red piece, or have a black piece. What is the best/easiest way to do this? Can I just make a matrix of rectangular buttons and somehow cause them to display an image that I include in a .gif or .jpg file?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, especially messages and classes necessary since that is that part of objC I am most uncomfortable with.

Many Thanks.

[tie]

Try using tiff files. Make one big image for the board, including partially transparent shadows (love that alpha channel) and others for the pieces.

[The_Equivocator]

Right, but how do I do that? It's mainly the coding aspects of it that I don't know.


Thanks for your reply, though. I'm just a little stressed with the deadline for this thing.

[This message has been edited by The_Equivocator (edited 06-01-2001).]

[tie]

Sorry with these forums down I can't help much. What I would do is put in an NSImageView in Interface Builder and then write some code like this:

<pre><font size = 1 face = courier>
IBOutlet NSImageView *view;
NSImage *redImage, *blackImage;

-&#40;<font color = green>void</font>&#41; loadImages {
redImage = [NSImage imageNamed&#58;<font color = orange>@"red.tiff"</font>];
blackImage = [NSImage imageNamed&#58;<font color = orange>@"black.tiff"</font>;
image = [NSImage imageNamed&#58;<font color = orange>@"bg.tiff"</font>]
[view setImage&#58;image];
}

-&#40;<font color = green>void</font>&#41; drawMoveAtRow&#58;&#40;<font color = green>int</font>&#41; row col&#58;&#40;<font color = green>int</font>&#41; col {
NSRect rect = [<font color = purple>self</font> rectForRow&#58;row col&#58;col];
[image lockFocus];
[redImage compositeToPoint&#58;rect.origin operation&#58;NSCompositeSourceOver];
[image unlockFocus];
[view setNeedsDisplayInRect&#58;rect];
}
</font></pre>

This draws in the coordinates of the background image, so if you set the NSImageView up properly, it will handle all the resizing for you. Anyway, these are the classes you will probably use.