Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!ATHENA.MIT.EDU!swick
From: swick@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ralph R. Swick)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Get text string from text widget
Message-ID: <8902031544.AA03421@LYRE.MIT.EDU>
Date: 3 Feb 89 15:44:45 GMT
References: <281@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: DEC/MIT Project Athena
Lines: 26

>  I have an editable Text string widget. How can I get the
> string value after I edit the text?

If you have allocated your own buffer and passed it as the value
of the XtNstring resource, then the text will be right there;
AsciiStringWidget uses your buffer in-place.  (This is documented
in a note in the description of the Xaw Text widget).

If you let the widget allocate it's own (default) buffer, then
life is pretty complicated.  The Text widget is currently missing
some methods to conveniently allow you to retrieve the text.
There _are_ a couple of ways that are unlikely to break as we
improve the widget (e.g. calling the source's Read method directly),
but you're really better off allocating your own buffer in the first
place.

>Is there any way to get
>the position of last charactor in the text window?

Yes, if by position you mean the XtTextPosition.  The following
will do the trick (with side-effects; again, we're missing some
code):

    XtTextPosition last;
    XtTextSetInsertionPoint(w, 9999999);
    last = XtTextGetInsertionPoint(w);