Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!psuvax1!swatsun!jackiw
From: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Editable Text Objects in Dialog Boxes
Message-ID: <4X6NVMD@cs.swarthmore.edu>
Date: 18 Aug 90 16:21:58 GMT
References: <1990Aug17.171302.8900@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw)
Organization: Visual Geometry Project, Swarthmore College, PA
Lines: 46

commons@Sunburn.Stanford.EDU (Peter Commons) writes:
> Two questions about Editable Text Objects in Dialog Boxes:
> 1) Can you limit the length and/or prevent carriage returns? Theoretically I 
> could check after every keypress to see if the length is too big or if they 
> just hit return (and then delete the last character and redraw), but I was 
> hoping for something nicer...

It's not that bad---you can forget the parenthetical part, at least. Install
a filterProc--it will get called before _ModalDialog.  Thus, if you get a 
keydown and the length of your item is at it's maximum, simply convert the
keydown into a nullEvent.  You might want to beep, to let them know they've
typed enough, and you'll probably want to let backspace, delete, arrow-left,
arrow-right, arrow-up and arrow-down pass through unscathed, so they can
still edit even if they can't add more.  

Likewise, it's trivial for a filter to convert keydown/keyCode=13 (returns)
into nullEvents.

> 2) A month ago some people were saying that to make a password dialog where
> the password was not legible, you change the font to something where all chars
> are undefined??? How do I do this?

Put up the dialog. DrawDialog. Then switch the font (TextFont) of the
current port to something more interesting---Zapf Chancery or your own
"every-character-a-bullet" font.  Alternately, you can try intercepting
and parsing all the keydowns in the way that editText does, store them
yourself in some string, and convert them in your filterProc to bullet-downs
(option-shift-8).  This is much more of a hassle than the former method,
however.


> Thanks.
> 
> 
> --
> |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
> |   Peter Commons			"Zut, alors! I have meesed one!!!"    |
> |   commons@cs.stanford.edu						      |
> |   Computer Science Department, Stanford University			      |


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