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From: dowdy@apple.UUCP (Tom Dowdy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Drawing Lines in Dialogs
Message-ID: <1256@apple.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Jul-87 13:30:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: apple.1256
Posted: Thu Jul  2 13:30:35 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jul-87 08:23:28 EDT
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, USA
Lines: 30
Keywords: drawing tricks dialogs


Today I was working on a dialog that needed some standard Gray lines
(horizontal and vertical) to separate portions of the dialog.

I was going to use a UserItem but I asked someone else what they thought.
They told me to use a PICT resource to do it.

It's very simple.  You have two PICT resources, one contains a vertical
grey line, one a horizonal (I used MacDraw to create them).  When you
need a line in your dialog, you simply put the PICT in your DITL, 
and drag it(With ResEdit) to the desired size.  Voila!  Instant line.

It's actually much better than a UserItem (most notably in a modeless
dialog) as it gets updated for you, plus you don't have any extra code
overhead for getting the item and drawing it.  Plus, if you wanted to
change it to a different pattern, thickness, what have you, it would
be simple.  (Users could even change it to a frilly boarder if that
amused them)

If you need odd shapes, four PICTs are required, one horizonal, one
vertical and 45 degree left and right angles.  With these you should
be able to construct any basic line figure.

You learn something new every day.

  Tom Dowdy                 CSNET:    dowdy@apple.CSNET
  Apple Computer MS:27Y     AppleLink:DOWDY1
  20525 Mariani Ave         UUCP:     {sun,voder,amdahl,decwrl}!apple!dowdy
  Cupertino, CA 95014       
  "Plus ca change, Plus c'est la meme chose."