The Be Book - System Overview - The Interface Kit

BShape

The BShape class provides a powerful means of representing the outline of any shape that can be comprised of lines or Beziér curves.

The BShapeIterator class provides a means for utilizing BShape objects in your own code. You can also use BShape objects to obtain outlines of characters in a BFont by calling BFont::GetGlyphShapes().

Creating a BShape

A BShape is essentially a list of graphics commands, of which there are four types:

MoveTo. This sets the BShape's coordinates to a specified point in the shape's space.
LineTo. This represents a line from the current point to the next point in the shape.
BeziérTo. This represents a Bezier curve, connecting the current point to a new point, with other points serving to control the shape of the curve.
Close. This indicates the end of the shape's command list.

Functions by the same names are used to add the corresponding commands to the BShape object. For example, to create a BShape that represents two vertical lines, the following code might be used:

BShape shape;
shape.MoveTo(0,0);
shape.LineTo(0,100);
shape.MoveTo(5,0);
shape.LineTo(5,100);