Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!bbn.com!mesard
From: mesard@bbn.com (Wayne Mesard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Copying a background (hacker's tip & request for feature)
Message-ID: <39528@bbn.COM>
Date: 5 May 89 13:30:57 GMT
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: mesard@BBN.COM (Wayne Mesard)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 38

I'm working on a stack which has three backgrounds that are very similar
to each other (1 different button and a slightly modified picture).  Now
I was damned if I was going to create the bg three times when the right
thing to do is do it once and then copy that bg to the two new bg's and
make the small changes.  But HC didn't give me an easy way to do it.

Here's the kludgey way I got around it:

1) Copy a card from bg 1.

2) Open a new, temporary stack.

3) Paste the card into the new stack.

4) Make the changes on this card, including changing the name of the
   background.

5) Copy this card.

6) Go back to the original stack and paste in the card (with the new
   background).

So I found a way around this limitation, but in other situations there's
no easy solution.  E.g., if you want to replicate the objects on card 1
in card 2 but using an existing background.

The HyperTalk Bible recommends a pd script named Groupies for this task,
but it would be so much simpler if HC did one or more of the following:

A) When in Background mode, the {Cut,Copy} Card menu items should change
   to {Cut,Copy} Background.  (And Paste Card becomes Paste Background.)

B) The background of a card should be a set'able property of that card.
   Thus,
             set background of this card to "MyOtherBg"

-- 
void *Wayne_Mesard();         Mesard@BBN.COM         BBN, Cambridge, MA