Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!jdevoto
From: jdevoto@Apple.COM (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: FAQ:  miniature card picture?
Message-ID: <47577@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 24 Dec 90 03:33:32 GMT
References: <1990Dec19.003310.12043@portia.Stanford.EDU> <47512@apple.Apple.COM> <1990Dec21.080810.27139@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 71

In article <1990Dec21.080810.27139@portia.Stanford.EDU> 
ralphm@portia.Stanford.EDU (Ralph Melton) writes further
concerning miniature card pictures:
>I am indeed doing this in a script.  It seems to me very unfriendly to
>heedlessly overwrite the clipboard.  Is there any way I can either a)
>generate the miniature picture without clobbering the clipboard, or b)
>save the contents of the clipboard, no matter what the nature of those
>contents, and restore them after my finagling?

Not easily, not without an XCMD (and I have not seen an XCMD that will
do this, although it seems as though it would be possible to write a
SaveScrap/RestoreScrap pair). You can check which of HyperCard's scrap
types is on the clipboard, if any, by checking the wording of the "Paste"
menu item:

  if menu "Edit" contains "Paste Text" then
    -- paste the text into a field
  else if menu "Edit" contains "Paste Picture" then
    -- paste the graphic onto a convenient card set aside for the purpose
  else if menu "Edit" contains "Paste Card" then
    -- paste the card where you can grab it later
  end if
  doMenu "Copy card"
  go card "Map"
  type "v" with shiftKey,commandKey
  -- now restore whatever you moved off the clipboard

As you can see, this is a pretty ugly solution; it requires setting aside a
card with an empty picture and an empty field to accept pictures or text.
It has several failure modes: for instance, the clipboard might contain more
than 29000 characters of text, in which case you'll get an error when you
try to paste it in to a field; the graphic on the clipboard might be too
large for the card you try to paste it into, resulting in unexpected clipping;
and so on. The above method is OK if you're trying to whip out a prototype,
or if your stack will be used in a controlled environment and you can ensure
that the clipboard contents will always be OK, but I wouldn't use it for
production work.

>And in a barely related question, is it possible for me to tell from within
>a script whether there is a button at a particular point?

Basically, you need to write a loop that will check all the buttons and
see whether your point is in any of them:

  on mouseUp
    put "Click at the point you want..."
    wait until the mouseClick
    if pointIsOccupied(the clickLoc) then
      beep
      answer "Sorry; there is already a button at that point."
      exit mouseUp
    end if
    -- create the button
  end mouseUp

  function pointIsOccupied thePoint
    repeat with x = 1 to the number of card buttons
      if thePoint is within the rect of card button x then return "true"
    end repeat
    repeat with x = 1 to the number of background buttons
      if thePoint is within the rect of background button x then return "true"
    end repeat
    return "false"  -- none of the buttons overlap the point
  end pointIsOccupied
-- 
========= jeanne a. e. devoto ========================================
 jdevoto@apple.com     |  You may not distribute this article under a
 jdevoto@well.sf.ca.us |  compilation copyright without my permission.
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