Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!shadooby!sharkey!cfctech!teemc!ka3ovk!ki4pv!cdin-1!dsinc!vu-vlsi!swatsun!jackiw
From: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: How does one set a single edittext item's font in a dialog?
Message-ID: <1989Nov29.190354.3407@cs.swarthmore.edu>
Date: 29 Nov 89 19:03:54 GMT
References: <21431@ut-emx.UUCP> <1569@intercon.com> <14748@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: jackiw@carthage (Nick Jackiw)
Organization: Visual Geometry Project, Swarthmore College, PA
Lines: 45

In article <14748@well.UUCP> svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) writes:
> 	I would say that Amanda's method would probably be the best, but there
> is one other way and that is to use ictb resources.  The ictb resource was 
> designed so that you could color dialog items, as well as setting the font/size
> etc. for edit and statText fields in a dialog.  The biggest problems with using
> ictb's are 1) the structure is a bitch to use and you have to hand do the hex
> since there is not editor or TMPL for ResEdit and 2) Apple doesn't guarentee it

I wrote an ictb/dctb/actb editor a while back to avoid hand-hexing forty
alerts in an application I'm building.  It has an absolutely hideous
user interface (which reflects an even more hideous data structure--I
don't know *what* Apple was thinking of when they came up with the ictb),
but it gets the job done.  If anyone would like it, send me e-mail. (If
response is overwhelming, I might put it on *.binaries, though it's
*not* intended for use by resource-tyros).

> to work (don't you just love it!).  I tried using it once and it was not to
> cooperative, but then I was trying it in a modeless dialog, and it will probably
> work better for modal dialogs.

True. Someone else pointed out that it frequently ignores FontInfo for new
fonts, though it seems to like Geneva 9 fine. In my opinion, its main 
drawback is that there's no way to pre-empt it.  If you set your background
color to a dark red, say, it will be mapped to black on any Color Quickdraw
machine set to B&W (e. g. my SE/30), and the foreground text will be
completely illegible.  Lots of experimentation is necessary to find fore
and back colors which are both aesthetically pleasing and useful interface-
wise and which preserve these two criteria when mapped to black and white.


> 	Just another thought on the subject...
> 
> 
> -- 
> +--------------------------------------------------+
> Leonard Rosenthol        |  GEnie : MACgician
> Lazerware, inc.          |  MacNet: MACgician
> UUCP: svc@well.UUCP      |  ALink : D0025


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