Xref: utzoo comp.sys.next:15264 comp.object:3050 comp.lang.objective-c:226
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!glinda!smith
From: smith@glinda.ctron.com (Larry Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next,comp.object,comp.lang.objective-c
Subject: Re: Capturing mouse actions
Message-ID: <1400@glinda.ctron.com>
Date: 5 Apr 91 14:46:41 GMT
References: <0094684B.EDD0D820@uno.edu> <6745@stpstn.UUCP>
Followup-To: comp.sys.next
Organization: Cabletron Systems Inc.  Rochester, NH
Lines: 35

In article <6745@stpstn.UUCP> lerman@stpstn.UUCP (Ken Lerman) writes:
>In article <0094684B.EDD0D820@uno.edu> jrscs@uno.edu writes:
>>
>>   Does anyone know how I can capture the mouse's selecting a text area
>>by highlighting?  When the user selects some text, I would like to make
>>available an option to call up Webster to define the word.  Calling  up
>>Webster is no problem; it's knowing when the Webster option should be
>>enabled by checking if the user has highlighted a word with the mouse
>>that I'm not sure about.

>I suggest that questions like this belong in comp.sys.next, NOT
>comp.object or comp.lang.objective-c.

Questions belong whereever they can get an answer, and I assume the newsgroups
reflect the posters available choices of hardware.  In any event, the biggest
waste of bandwidth on the net is people complaining about other peoples choice
of venue for postings.

To answer the original question, I'd suggest enabling a popup menu whenever a
piece of text is selected.  It would have the usual things you might want to
do with marked text - cut, copy, etc, and also have "dictionary" which could
define all words in the marked area.  You might also have this entry under your
"File" menu and leave it disabled unless text is selected.  As a general rule,
the user should always be able to reach all major functionality via the top
level menu, popups are handy for experienced users but new users may not think
to look for them.

Popups are usually associated with mouse 2.

Above assumes Motif, Open Look is similar, Next is weird, but above should be
ok from their GUI style, too (not sure what mouse button to associate the
popup with, tho).

Larry Smith
smith@ctron.com