Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!gatech!ncsuvx!ecemwl!jnh
From: jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Joseph N. Hall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Macintosh handles
Message-ID: <3456@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 21 Jul 89 15:18:02 GMT
References: <1044@clinet.FI> <8043@hoptoad.uucp> <1409@unix.SRI.COM> <8071@hoptoad.uucp> <1294@intercon.UUCP>
Sender: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jnh@ecemwl.UUCP (Joseph N. Hall)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Lines: 20

In article <1294@intercon.UUCP> amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker) writes:
>
>Yup.  It's funny sometimes.  Apple provides this nice Toolbox so that
>no one has to reinvent the wheel for the user interface, but everybody
>still has to reinvent (incompatible) wheels for:
>...
>	Scrolling selection lists and tables

Hmm.  I haven't found the List Manager to be all that difficult to use, or
that it lacks much critical versatility.  Its worst flaw is that it doesn't
support variable column or row sizes.  But a simple scrolling list takes
only, say, 50 lines of code to implement as a module, more if you add
frills like arrow key scrolling, etc.  (Your code length may vary.)  And
LDEFs have to be easier to write and get working than any other piece of
code of the form xDEF ...

One hint ... it's a lot simpler to use the List Manager for these purposes if
you avoid mixing it with the Dialog Manager.  Implement your "dialog" with
your own window and controls and avoid the userItem ... you'd be amazed how
much easier the code is to read, among other things.