Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: A pop-up background field ?
Keywords: HyperCard, background fields
Message-ID: <10953@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 28 Mar 90 16:19:31 GMT
References: <1990Mar27.173252.21738@uwasa.fi> <3221@draken.nada.kth.se>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 39

In article <3221@draken.nada.kth.se> krona@nada.kth.se (Kjell Krona) writes:
>> I would like to have a pop-up background field with text in it, to
>> be used anywhere in the stack.
>
>One solution I have been using is to store the text in a global
>variable, and put it into the field when needed. Of course, if the
>text is not removed afterwards, it will eventually be stored on all
>cards. This can be easily accomplished with "opencard" and "closecard"
>handlers.

Except that significant changes to a card in openStack and closeStack
handlers create a performance hit and extra disk access that is easily
perceived by the user.  It's best to minimize card changes while
opening and closing cards.  Generally, it's possible to get the changes
down to no more than hiding or showing a couple of fields or buttons,
and that seems to be the case here.  I'd bet that actually changing
a field this way on every card movement would be a real bear.

Unless it's a ton of text, it's not really going to use up that much
disk space to instantiate it on every card.  However, you should
consider that it might be better just to put this kind of thing on a
separate help card, so that there is no background field at all, just a
card field on the help card.  Judicious use of screen locking can even
make it look very much like the field *is* popping up on the current
card.

Incidentally, for pop-up fields, I generally find that the appropriate
visual effect is a dissolve.  Example:

  lock screen
  show card field "card help"
  unlock screen with dissolve fast

and vice versa for hiding it.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"Superhero stories could best be described as entertainment that externalizes
 childhood power fantasies." -- Timothy Fay on rec.arts.comics