Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!kth!sunic!chalmers!tekno.chalmers.se!d83_sven_a
From: d83_sven_a@tekno.chalmers.se (Sven (Sciz) Axelsson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Who has hacked numeric TEdit?.
Message-ID: <803@tekno.chalmers.se>
Date: 2 Jun 89 16:33:44 GMT
References: <1076@mailrus.cc.umich.edu> <11722@well.UUCP> <16413@paris.ics.uci.edu> <25190@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Lines: 41

In article <25190@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, lippin@jif.berkeley.edu (The Apathist) writes:
> Recently Alastair Milne <milne@ics.uci.edu> wrote:
> [...]
>> Now for the nasty part.  I assuming we've been thinking so far about the
>> entry of integers.  What about real numbers?  I may just have missed it, but
>> I don't recall seeing any standards in I-M for real number format (beyond
>> the settings of components that differ between countries.)  Having worked
>> on CAI material for some years, where such entry has to be made very
>> tolerant for students who've never used a computer before, I can attest the
>> number of difficulties to consider.  Are there any standards for this?
> 
> If you use the SANE routines (Str2Dec and a call to fp68k) to convert
> strings to numbers, you get error codes if the input isn't right.  I
> haven't seen much documentation on how to use SANE, but it's not too
> hard to figure out from the Apple Numerics Manual (which I've only
> seen the preliminary edition of), and from looking through the files
> <sane.h> and the math libraries (in LSC; your development system may
> vary.)  I found it worth knowing -- the routines are very versatile,
> and they make your code more internationally compatible.  I even use
> the SANE routines to check the validity of integer input.
> 
> In addition to using the SANE checks, you should, of course, check the
> range of your input, and also check that it is not a NAN (that is, a
> not-a-number).

How about using the new script manager routines Str2Format and FormatStr2X?
They provide a totally general means of inputting numbers in any format
using templates as in 4th Dimension, Excel etc. (i.e. you can input a 
telephone number as (123) 4567-890 and get back then numerical 1234567890).
I haven't actually used these, but from reading the Script Manager manual
that was posted to comp.binaries.mac a while ago they sure look useful.
You might have some problems getting the glue to use these if you don't use
MPW though.


+-------------------------+--------------------------------+------------------+
|   Sven Axelsson         |  d83_sven_a@tekno.chalmers.se  |  DISCLAIMER:     |
|   dep:t of Linguistics  |          (^^ best ^^)          |                  |
|   univ. of Gothenburg   |        dlv_sa@hum.gu.se        |  This is not     |
|   SWEDEN                |      usdsa@seguc21.bitnet      |  a disclaimer.   |
+-------------------------+--------------------------------+------------------+