Introduction
This manual describes the MrEd GUI toolbox for programmers developing MrEd applications. It assumes familiarity with MzScheme as described in PLT MzScheme: Language Manual, the class.ss library of MzLib (which defines the class and interface system), and basic GUI concepts (such as windows and events).
What is MrEd?
MrEd is a Scheme implementation based on MzScheme (see PLT MzScheme: Language Manual). MrEd embeds MzScheme and extends it with a graphical user interface (GUI) toolbox. GUI applications written with MrEd run without modification under Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix/X.
MrEd is not a graphical environment for developing Scheme programs. DrScheme, documented in PLT DrScheme: Development Environment Manual, is the development environment for producing MzScheme- and MrEd-based applications.1
Toolbox Organization
For documentation purposes, the MrEd toolbox is organized into three parts:
The windowing toolboxmred:windowing-toolbox, for implementing form-filling GUI programs (such as a database query window) using buttons, menus, text fields, and events.
The drawing toolboxmred:drawing-toolbox, for drawing pictures or implementing dynamic GUI programs (such as a video game) using drawing canvases, pens, and brushes.
The editor toolboxmred:editor-toolbox, for developing traditional text editors, editors that mix text and graphics, or free-form layout editors (such as a word processor, HTML editor, or icon-based file browser).
These three parts roughly represent layers of increasing sophistication. Simple GUI programs access only the windowing toolbox directly, more complex programs use both the windowing and drawing toolboxes, and large-scale applications rely on all three toolboxes.2
All three parts are immediately available when MrEd is started, as well as the base class system from MzLib. The mred.ss library module of the mred collection provides all of the class, interface, and procedure names defined in this manual. When MrEd starts up, it imports the mred.ss module and MzLib's class.ss module into the initial namespace (so no knowledge about modules is required to understand this manual).
The module #%mred-kernel is built into the MrEd
executable, and intended for use only by mred.ss. Attempting
to require mred.ss in a plain MzScheme executable will result
in a run-time error, because #%mred-kernel will not be
available.
To create a namespace in which the mred.ss module will be used,
call the make-namespace-with-mred procedure. That
procedure attaches the mred.ss instance of the current
namespace to the created namespace. Otherwise, different namespaces
create different instances of the mred.ss module, which in
turn generate distinct classes.
1 DrScheme is itself a MrEd-based application that is developed using DrScheme.
2 This three-layer view of the toolbox breaks down under close scrutiny, because the windowing, drawing, and editor toolboxes are actually interdependent and intertwined. Nevertheless, the layered separation is a good approximation.