How to disable auto alignment?

Question

I'm building an android project and I'm using eclipse. I just can't figure out how to disable the annoying auto alignment. I just want to place buttons wherever I want to drop them on the GUI interface but it just keeps to align them one to another. I've tried to delete those alignment lines in the xml code but it still brings them back as I move the buttons on the GUI interface.

Is there an way to disable that function?

Thank you,

Alex

Answer 1

Is there an way to disable that function?

Not in a way that you will find satisfactory, I suspect.

You have not really explained what the "alignment lines" are, so we are forced to guess. My guess is that the "alignment lines" are because you are working with a RelativeLayout container. Quoting the JavaDocs for RelativeLayout, RelativeLayout is:

A Layout where the positions of the children can be described in relation to each other or to the parent.

And, quoting the guide for RelativeLayout:

RelativeLayout is a view group that displays child views in relative positions. The position of each view can be specified as relative to sibling elements (such as to the left-of or below another view) or in positions relative to the parent RelativeLayout area (such as aligned to the bottom, left of center).

Hence, the "alignment lines" are there, and are replaced by the GUI builder, because they are the point behind using a RelativeLayout container.

Of course, you are welcome to change the container that you are working with to something else.

However, in general, Android does not really support very well your stated objective ("I just want to place buttons wherever I want to drop them on the GUI interface"). Just as you don't do that in Web development, you don't do that in Android development, and for much the same reason: you need to take different sizes into account (browser window size for Web, screen size for Android). RelativeLayout, LinearLayout, TableLayout, and GridLayout are all designed to have you specify widgets plus rules for positioning and sizing, so that you can design a UI that will accommodate the difference between a 3" and a 4.5" screen, for example. This is akin to using HTML tags and CSS rules to define content and its positioning in a Web page. Eclipse's drag-and-drop GUI builder for Android can assist in your definitions of these rules, as you are perhaps seeing with your "alignment lines" for RelativeLayout.