Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!motcid!linneweh
From: linneweh@motcid.UUCP (Louis Linneweh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: QuickBasic Window Refresh - Method?
Summary: Need QuickBasic output window refreshed after being overwritten.
Keywords: QuickBasic, Basic, Refresh
Message-ID: <5339@blue.UUCP>
Date: 16 Nov 90 17:12:35 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL
Lines: 20

I use  Microsoft's QuickBasic language for quick, individual programs with
old-fashioned, scrolling, cheap and dirty output.  Just the kind of thing
a language named "QuickBasic" should be good at.  But the output window is
frequently overwritten by other windows (Mail, Smart Alarms, even QuickBasic
error messages!) and when you return to the output window, low an behold,
the overwritten portion is not refreshed.  Not only is work lost, but if
the culprit was the error message you've also lost the details of the 
results preceeding the error!  Writing code to redo the work and display it
again would not even be able to help this last example, and the amount of
effort required flies in the face of *QuickBasic*.

Am I just missing an option somewhere that would make "refresh" automatic,
or am I the victim of Microsoft's desire to give the user full control
over the Mac window interface?  I'd even add a little code to trigger a 
refresh if I didn't have to redo the entire calculation (which may have
taken some minutes in the first place).  Is there a reasonable way to do
this?  Do I need to maintain my own scrolling buffer and reprint it?

BTW, Microsoft couldn't seem to help me with this.  It may be *the* reason
to find another language!