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1.9 AutoLayout flags

Each view has two expand/align flags, one for the horizontal, and the other one for the vertical direction. Such flags describe how the view should be treated with respect to additional space which could be made available. 'Additional space' means 'space in addition to the minimum required to display the view'. The flags for a view are generally managed (and stored) in the container which contains the view. Different containers will react to flags in different ways, particularly to the align values of the flags.

Each of the horizontal and vertical flag of a view can take a value from the following enumeration:

    typedef enum
    {
      GSAutoLayoutExpand = 0,
      GSAutoLayoutWeakExpand = 1,
      GSAutoLayoutAlignMin = 2,
      GSAutoLayoutAlignCenter = 3,
      GSAutoLayoutAlignMax = 4
    } GSAutoLayoutAlignment;

These values are now described fully.

- `GSAutoLayoutExpand`: The view benefits from being expanded in that direction, typically it can provide a bigger editable area and/or display more useful information. Editable textfields (in the horizontal direction) and scrollviews (in both directions) are typical examples of controls which have this flag. Containers have their flag set to `GSAutoLayoutExpand` in a direction if and only if they contain a view with the flag set to `GSAutoLayoutExpand` in that direction. Typically, a window is then made resizable in a direction if and only if its main container has this value of the align flag in that direction. This automatically makes windows which contains at least an element which benefits from being expanded in a direction expandable in that direction.

- `GSAutoLayoutWeakExpand`: The view does not benefit from being expanded in that direction, but whenever more space is available, it looks prettier if the view is expanded. This value of the flag is typically used by `spaces'. A space is an invisible view whose task is just to expand and consume some space when the space becomes available (usually in order to keep other controls aligned and prettily positioned). A container has a flag set to `GSAutoLayoutWeakExpand` in a direction if and only if it does not contain any view with the flag set to `GSAutoLayoutExpand` (else, its flag would be set to this), and it contains a view with the flag set to `GSAutoLayoutWeakExpand`.

- `GSAutoLayoutAlignCenter`: The view does not benefit from being expanded in that direction, and if more space is available, the view would prefer the space to be distributed on the two sides of the view, keeping the view centered in that direction. The actual interpretation of this flag depends on the container, which migth ignore it (as the case of the proportioned boxes, which always expands all the contained views in their direction). This value is the default for all views which don't have the flag set to expand.

- `GSAutoLayoutAlignMin`, `GSAutoLayoutAlignMax`: The view does not benefit from being expanded in that direction, and if more space is available, the view would prefer the space to be distributed on one side of the view, so that the view is aligned towards the minimum (or maximum) of the coordinate system in that direction. The actual interpretation of this flag depends on the container, which might ignore it (as in the case of the proportioned manager).

Next: 1.10 How AutoLayout flags Up: 1. Renaissance AutoLayout Previous: 1.8 How expanding flags