Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!gatech!mcnc!kk
From: kk@mcnc.org (Krzysztof Kozminski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Moving a Textedit field in a modal dialog - solution (?)
Message-ID: <1354@speedy.mcnc.org>
Date: 24 Aug 89 23:14:04 GMT
References: <15088@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <21428@cup.portal.com> <58078@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <8356@hoptoad.uucp> <1341@speedy.mcnc.org> <8376@hoptoad.uucp>
Reply-To: kk@mcnc.org.UUCP (Krzysztof Kozminski)
Organization: Microelectronics Center of NC; RTP, NC
Lines: 32

In article <8376@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:
>Deactivation is indeed a better solution, though it doesn't completely
>address the problem of modality.  But at least it gives a clear visible
>indication of the modal behavior.  With text edit items, you can always
>disable them by turning them into user items with SetDItem and binding
>a "draw light gray" drawing procedure, then doing an InvalRect on the
>item's surrounding rectangle.  I don't think this causes any problems.

OK, I got the following idea: make an additional, inactive userItem
that exactly overlaps the text edit item that may be subject to
disappearance, and let its procedure draw a gray rectangle in patOr
mode.  Then just do Show/HideDItem on the text edit item as needed. The
userItem shows up only when the text item is hidden, (otherwise it
blends with the text box - that's why you need to use 'patOr' mode or to
place the userItem underneath the text item) and you don't have
to bother storing the control handle, activating/deactivating the item,
making sure not to try to get text from your userItem, etc.

Tim's proposition also works (I checked - Dialog Manager handles the
'tab loop' correctly), but requires approximately twice as much
programming effort (20 lines of code versus 10 :-)

On the subject of modality - sometimes you do need things like discussed
above - imagine an object with attributes A, B, ..., Z, with attribute
B that has a text value and that makes sense only if binary attribute A
is set.  Using different dialogs for the object, depending on the value
of A, would be bothersome both for the user and for the programmer.

KK
-- 
Kris Kozminski   kk@mcnc.org
"The party was a masquerade; the guests were all wearing their faces."