Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ucsd!sdcc6!sdacs!wade
From: wade@sdacs.ucsd.EDU (Wade Blomgren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: suppress display of password entry
Message-ID: <536@sdacs.ucsd.EDU>
Date: 17 May 88 20:41:47 GMT
Organization: UCSD Academic Computing Services
Lines: 17


What is the best (easiest) way to allow entry of a password on the screen
while suppressing the display of the actual characters in the 
edittext item?  Use a dedicated font, like TOPS does? Or intercept 
all keydown events in a filter and change the key code to that of
a meaningless character like a bullet or hash?  The latter method
seems to be what is happening in, for example, AppleShare, but it
seems a bit difficult to keep track of the actual word that gets
typed if the person does any editing of the edittext item with
the mouse.  For example, if the user types "abc" and then clicks between
the a and the b, and inserts another letter, you would have a bit
of figuring to do if you wanted to figure out what the word entered
really was. What am I missing? Or is there yet another way to do this.
I suppose one solution is to avoid having an edited field at all and
just capture keydown events, but that seems somewhat inelegant.

Wade Blomgren
wade@sdacs.ucsd.edu