[Closed] Unable to convert: dotNetObject to dotNetObject…?

I’ve been creating a lot of tools for the animators here, and I’ve been using more and more DotNet to make the UIs more versatile. I decided to try to get some re-use in building these dotnet UI’s, but it’s causing some problems that I just don’t understand.

I keep getting “-- Unable to convert: dotNetObject:System.Windows.Forms.Button to type: System.Windows.Forms.Control” and other similar errors. But here’s the awesome part – only sometimes. On my larger script, it’ll happen sometimes 5 times in a row, then randomly run without error! The following test case runs a little more frequently, but it is causing the same error maybe 1 in 5 times.

I think it has something to do with the variables holding references to the values instead of the values themselves? How do I force these variables to hold the correct values? Why is it randomly working and/or not working, but not consistently doing either?

Here’s a pared-down version of the script that’s causing me problems.

 struct zmDotNetUITest (
  	fn zmAdjTableLayout t colStyles rowStyles =
  	(
  		t.columnCount = colStyles.count
  		t.rowCount = rowStyles.count
  		--
  		for i = 1 to colStyles.count do (
  			t.columnStyles.add (dotNetObject "system.windows.forms.columnstyle")
  			case colStyles[i][1] of (
  				#absolute:		t.columnStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype = t.columnStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype.absolute
  				#percent:		t.columnStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype = t.columnStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype.percent
  				#AutoSize:		t.columnStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype = t.columnStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype.AutoSize
  			)
  			t.columnstyles.item[(i-1)].width = colStyles[i][2]
  		)
  		for i = 1 to rowStyles.count do (
  			t.rowStyles.add (dotNetObject "system.windows.forms.rowstyle")
  			case rowStyles[i][1] of (
  				#absolute:		t.rowStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype = t.rowstyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype.absolute
  				#percent:		t.rowStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype = t.rowstyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype.percent
  				#AutoSize:		t.rowStyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype = t.rowstyles.item[(i-1)].sizetype.AutoSize
  			)
  			t.rowStyles.item[(i-1)].height = rowStyles[i][2]
  		)
  	),
  	fn zmDnTableLayout n parent:undefined col:1 row:1 pad:0 border:false = 
  	(
  		local tabLay = dotnetobject "System.Windows.Forms.TableLayoutPanel"
  		if border then (
  			tabLay.cellBorderStyle = tabLay.cellBorderStyle.outset
  		)
  		tabLay.columnCount = col
  		tabLay.rowCount = row
  		tabLay.dock = tabLay.dock.fill
  		tabLay.Margin = (dotNetObject "system.windows.forms.padding" pad)
  		tabLay.padding = (dotNetObject "system.windows.forms.padding" pad)
  		tabLay
  	),	
  	fn zmdn_createButton t w h evt tag:undefined =
  	(
  		local btn = dotnetobject "System.Windows.Forms.button"
  		btn.text = t
  		if (tag!=undefined) then btn.tag = tag
  		btn.padding = btn.margin = (dotNetObject "system.windows.forms.padding" 2)
  		if (w==0) then (
  			btn.dock = btn.dock.fill
  		) else (
  			btn.width = w
  			btn.height = h
  		)
  		dotNet.addEventHandler btn evt[1] evt[2]
  		dotNet.setLifetimeControl btn #dotnet
  		btn
  	),
  	fn zmdnui_form t w h =
  	(
  		dotnet.loadassembly "System.Data"
  		local newFrm = dotnetobject "MaxCustomControls.Maxform"
  		newFrm.size = dotnetobject "System.Drawing.Size" w h
  		newFrm.formborderStyle = newFrm.formborderStyle.Sizable
  		newFrm.text = t
  		
  		--dotNet.setLifetimeControl newFrm #dotnet
  		newFrm
  	)
  )
  global zmDotNetUITest = zmDotNetUITest()
  -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------	
  
  try (zmdnTest.form.close()) catch()
  struct zmdnTest (
  	form,
  	maxbut,
  	xafbut,
  	otherbut,
  	fn zmpg_btn_evt =
  	(
  		format "yo
"
  	),
  	fn initUI =
  	(
  		zmdnTest.form = zmDotNetUITest.zmdnui_form "animPropagate" 800 400
  		local mainlay = zmDotNetUITest.zmDnTableLayout "" col:4 row:1 pad:0 border:false
  		zmDotNetUITest.zmAdjTableLayout mainlay #(#(#absolute,150),#(#absolute,150),#(#absolute,150),#(#percent,100)) #(#(#percent,100))		
  		local laySrc = zmDotNetUI.zmDnTableLayout "" col:1 row:3 pad:0 border:false
  		zmDotNetUI.zmAdjTableLayout laySrc #(#(#percent,100)) #(#(#percent,100),#(#percent,100))
  
  		zmdnTest.maxBut = zmDotNetUITest.zmdn_createButton "Max" 0 0 #("click",zmpg_btn_evt)
  		zmdnTest.xafBut = zmDotNetUITest.zmdn_createButton "XAF" 0 0 #("click",zmpg_btn_evt)
  		zmdnTest.otherbut = zmDotNetUITest.zmdn_createButton "Other" 0 0 #("click",zmpg_btn_evt)
  
  		mainlay.controls.addRange #(laySrc)
  		laySrc.controls.addRange #(zmdnTest.maxBut,zmdnTest.xafbut,zmdnTest.otherbut)
  		form.controls.addRange #(mainlay)
  
  		zmdnTest.form.showModeless()
  	)
  )
  global zmdnTest = zmdnTest()
  zmdnTest.initUI()
  

It’s mostly happening on the 7th line up from the bottom: “laySrc.controls.addRange …”.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.




rich