### Designing the Application

To begin the design, you need to select the Start new design option in the IRE Startup dialog box. Dialog boxes or windows cannot be created until a design has been defined.

The New Design dialog box will be displayed containing initial preset options as well as options that you can complete. In the Basename entry field, type the base name for the application "EXAMPLE". You will also notice that when you change the focus from the entry field in the dialog box, the Include entry field should have "EXAMPLE.H" for the include file.

Make sure that the target environment in the Environment group box is OS/2 2.x, because you are developing an application for OS/2 2.x and you want to be sure that the correct script and resource conventions are selected.

Now, click on the Set push button, informing the IRE that you have defined the project. This allows the IRE to automatically set up predefined information, such as program variables, that will be used in the application. You are now ready to begin designing the application.

The best way to use the IRE effectively is to create the dialog boxes first and then the main program window. The reason for doing this is so you can easily associate the dialog boxes to menus. Of course, you can create the main window first, and then the dialog boxes and then go back and edit the menu items to add the associated dialog boxes, but if you already know the dialog boxes, it is easier to create them first.

See Creating Application Windows.

Designing and Building Applications
Creating Application Windows
Adding New Elements
Creating Menus
Saving and Generating the Resource Script Files