Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu-cs!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!jonathan
From: jonathan@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jonathan Altman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: How about static fields???
Summary: yes vote for static fields!
Message-ID: <12083@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 3 Feb 89 23:27:34 GMT
References: <979@wasatch.UUCP> <69824GAB100@PSUVM>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: jonathan@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jonathan Altman)
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Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 65

In article <69824GAB100@PSUVM> GAB100@PSUVM.BITNET (George A. Brownfield) writes:
>In article <979@wasatch.UUCP>, t-jacobs@wasatch.UUCP (Tony Jacobs) says:
>
>>(good suggestion asking for background fields that are static
     between cards and a description of kludges to accomplish
     something similar)
>
>     How hard is it to use the text tool under the paint tools menu?
>Go into the background editor, select the text tool, place your cursor
>at the appropriate place, and type in the information.  The result will
>be the same text on all cards.  If you need to arrange/format it, use
>the lasso or marquee.  You can even paint in a nice border if it's needed.
>
(some stuff deleted)
>BORROWED ACCOUNT  -- NOT George Brownfield.
>
>James D. Maloy, PSU Class of '87

Actually, I was going to let this message pass.  Here's why the
suggestion of using the text paint tool isn't enough.  What I wanted to
do was write a stack that I thought was one of the best things
hypercard did-walk someone through a demonstration of something, in
this case the use of a database of commentaries on the Divine Comedy.
So, I had a sequential set of cards which represented the steps of a
session on our database.  Depending on which operation the stack was
showing, I wanted the user of the stack to be able to click on any part
of the screen dump on that card, and have a piece of explanatory text
pop up, and then go away when the user wanted to get rid of it.  Now,
there are at least ten cards for each of two backgrounds.  There are
about ten items on each screen dump for which I'd like to show
information.  It's the same information for each card in a background.
To show help for any item on each card requires one of several things:

1. Use background fields, and write the information for each card in
each card.  This is, obviously tedious.  Then I can use "show field"
when a user wants to see some information, and "hide field" when the
user wants it to go away.  This is a HUGE hack, especially if I ever
want to CHANGE anything(oh, yeah.  Forgot to change the text on card 37
of 52-sorry.)

2. Paint the information onto the card, and then erase it.  Good
solution.  Especially since I like painting my cards grey, so that
erasing doesn't work.  Besides, it's always fun to watch a script run
the paint tools.  (I know, you could lock the card, but painting is
still slow, and a user could possibly interrupt it)

3. Use background fields.  Put the information in the fields for one
card.  Show the information in other cards by getting the contents from
that one card, then put it into the field for the current card.  Still
a hack, and the particular hack that I used.

Now, if backgrounds can stay around between cards, certainly a new type
of field could also.  This seems a much cleaner solution.

Anyway, this isn't a flame of hypercard, nor a strong flame of the
person who suggested the paint tools (although I thought it WAS a bit
condescending).  But I hope that I've presented adequate reason why
static background text fields might be nice.  Maybe this'll move the
idea up a couple of pages on the 80-page feature list.

Jonathan Altman           jonathan@eleazar.Dartmouth.edu
Database Administrator    (ihnp4,decvax)!dartvax!eleazar!jonathan
Dartmouth Dante Project   jonathan@eleazar.UUCP (I think)
HB 6087                   voice: 603-646-2633
Hanover, NH 03755