Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!bionet!agate!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: multi-button CDEF, was Re: List Manager questions
Message-ID: <8173@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 30 Jul 89 05:27:16 GMT
References: <8374@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> <227700017@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <8115@hoptoad.uucp> <5129@umd5.umd.edu> <8138@hoptoad.uucp> <5134@umd5.umd.edu> <8156@hoptoad.uucp> <3530@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 37

In article <3530@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> jnh@ecemwl.UUCP (Joseph N. Hall) writes:
>This reminds me of an idea I had recently (probably not unique) which is
>that a CDEF incorporating an entire vertical stack or horizontal row of
>radio buttons would be awfully convenient ... you would supply an array of
>titles in the refcon field, and the CDEF would work like a properly-managed
>set of "ordinary" radio buttons, returning values of 1, 2, 3, etc., 
>depending upon which button was currently "on."  I have no idea why
>Apple didn't supply this control or something similar to it with some
>version of the system software.  One of these days I'll write it ...

It's a very interesting idea; thanks for sharing it.  The advantages
are obvious, which is why I'll only deal with the disadvantages here.
(And *not* because I am a negative, brooding figure, as some would
suggest.  I write most of my messages on a portable computer while
skipping through sunny, windblown fields of daisies, humming a merry
tune and thinking good thoughts about my fellow travellers on spaceship
earth.)

The problems have to do with titles and positions.  One title isn't
enough; you could introduce rules for partitioning single titles into
multiples, but they would be unlikely to pass internationalization
muster.  So you have to have some way of storing multiple titles.
Probably the best way would be to have an associated 'STR#' resource.
Then you have the individual button positions.  Each has its own
rectangle.  I am leery of automatic positioning schemes, since you lose
power and whatever you decide on will probably be wrong for some
desired layout.  Again, the solution would appear to be an associated
'nrct' resource.  The association between the resources could be as
simple as giving them all the same resource id.

These problems are soluble, so the idea is probably worth pursuing.
Please let us know if you actually get around to doing this.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"Don't talk to me about disclaimers!  I invented disclaimers!"
    - The Censored Hacker