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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!caip!lll-crg!lll-lcc!pyramid!amiga!jimm
From: jimm@amiga.UUCP (Jim Mackraz)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: (string gadgets) and other IntuiNoise
Message-ID: <1114@amiga.amiga.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-May-86 14:08:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: amiga.1114
Posted: Tue May  6 14:08:37 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 8-May-86 08:04:04 EDT
References: <266@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP>
Reply-To: jimm@homer.UUCP (Jim Mackraz)
Organization: Commodore-Amiga Inc., 983 University Ave #D, Los Gatos CA 95030
Lines: 60

In article <266@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP> jdt@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (Dave Tenny) writes:
>I have an application which uses a string gadget within a requester,
>I submit the requester with Request for a particular (active) window.
>The problem:
>  What flag (if there is one) do I set in which structure to have the
>  string gadget become 'activated' without requiring the user to
>  select the gadget first.  This is primarily a text application, and
>  it is not 'intuitive' for the user to have to select what appears
>  to be an active gadget.  I have the SELECTED flag in the gadget structure set.
>
>Thanx in advance..
>
> -Dave Tenny

There are no magic flags one can set in 1.1.  Setting the SELECTED flag
turns out to get the cursor highlighted (see Workbench rename string
gadget), but there is a lot more to activating a string gadget than
getting the highlighting correct.  (Readers will recall that setting
the SELECTED flag in BOOLGADGETs and Refreshing is now the endorsed way
of getting MutualExclude functionality.)

Now in 1.2, things are different.  Why, there is an ActivateWindow() and
also an ActivateGadget() function.  String gadgets also have their
cursor move to the mouse point when clicked.  ^H works as backspace,
and unprintable characters are suppressed.  Everything flashes a little
bit less, and RELWIDTH string gadgets should work now (testing yet to do).

TIME OUT:  could I take a moment to make a request for all the user-interface
programmers out there?  OK.  Please see to it that control-H serves as
backspace.  I, for one, have found that the only way I can continue to make
frequent mistakes (er, I mean, type in an uninhibited and creative manner)
on a variety of keyboards is to use control-H instead of searching for the
backspace key (albeit wonderfully shaped and positioned on the Amiga).
Call it a user-interface guideline, OK?  I owe everybody who does this
a favor. TIME IN.

What else?  string gadgets deselect--instead of inhibit--when the menu
button is pressed.  There is a known bug recently discovered in integer
gadgets (strings with LONGINT set).  It turns out the integer is not
edited by delete/backspace stuff, although the string reads OK.  This
has been around for a while, I suspect, but its surprise discovery at
this late date means it has slipped into the first beta release of 1.2.

Did you know about this and not tell anyone?

As for 1.2 becoming available?  I don't know.  Beta?  I don't know.
Who will get Beta copies?  I don't know.
What the best thing is about 1.2?  I know that one, and its initials
are l.l/ICR().

		jimm
		user-interface guy

"Have I relied 
 On a Drawn Blind?
 Wasted my Time
 On a Blown Mind?
 Oh, Andy .."		-zappa

"if it boots, ship it"	-me