Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!ll-xn!husc6!endor!olson
From: olson@endor.harvard.edu (Eric K. Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Blinking cursor in modeless dialog ...
Message-ID: <4112@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 24 Feb 88 20:39:47 GMT
References: <11406@sgi.SGI.COM>
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Reply-To: olson@endor.UUCP (Eric K. Olson)
Distribution: na
Organization: Lexington Software Design, Lexington, MA
Lines: 55
Keywords: DIALOG CURSOR BLINK

In a recent article Michael Toy -- The S.G.I. XMAN writes:
>I can't get the cursor to blink in a dialog box.  All my previous dialog
>boxes have been handled by "ModalDialog()" which does all the right things
>for me.  Inside Mac tells me that I need to call "IsDialogEvent" and then
>"DialogSelect" after a "GetNextEvent" even if "GetNextEvent" returns false
>in order for the TextEdit cursor in my modeless dialog box to blink.  I
>translated that statement to this code:
>
>    if (GetNextEvent(everyEvent, &anEvent))
>	/*
>	** This is my event handler, it also calls IsDialogEvent and
>	** DialogSelect
>	*/
>	handle_event(&anEvent);

I use the following code:

void dialTEidle(dialog)
	DialogPtr	dialog;
{
	TEIdle(((DialogRecord *) dialog)->textH);
	}

void dialTEactive(dialog)
	DialogPtr	dialog;
{
	TEActivate(((DialogRecord *) dialog)->textH);
	}

void dialTEdeactive(dialog)
	DialogPtr	dialog;
{
	TEDeactivate(((DialogRecord *) dialog)->textH);
	}

with the following explanation:

Keep in mind that you don't want the cursor to blink just in response
to DialogSelect, since that is called in response to events.  In your
main loop, you should call dialTEIdle.  If the Dialog allows itself
to be deselected, you'll need dialTEActivate and dialTEDeactivate so
that the caret knows when to go away and appear.  Call them in response
to Activate and Deactivate events in the Dialog's window.

Note that this only works because the Dialog Manager shares a single
TextEdit record among all the EditText items in the Dialog (otherwise,
you'ld have to know which item is current, too).  This is documented
in Inside Mac (but seems like something subject to change).  If it
ever does change, this code will break.

I know of no other way to do it; does anyone else?

-Eric
	    "We're writing tomorrow's software yesterday."
Eric K. Olson     olson@endor.harvard.edu     harvard!endor!olson     D0760
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