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From: saj@chinet.chi.il.us (Stephen Jacobs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: FORMDIAL.PRG
Summary: Helps if you don't NEED a redraw
Message-ID: <1990Feb17.145146.3857@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 17 Feb 90 14:51:46 GMT
References: <1990Feb3.070418.13493@gumby.cc.wmich.edu> <1392@uvm-gen.UUCP> <1990Feb15.161106.17781@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: saj@chinet.chi.il.us (Stephen Jacobs)
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 11

I didn't follow right away, but now maybe I understand.  It's the nature of
dialog boxes that the program state is different after using one.  Sometimes
the state is unstable (perhaps there's a new working copy of a string which
needs to be validated and moved to the permanent string).  Sometimes the
display needs to be changed (consider choosing different display sizes in a
page layout program).  It's very tempting to assume that these functions will
only be needed after a redraw is requested at the end of a dialog.  If FORMDIAL
suppresses that, and if those functions are folded into the redraw code,
confusion would result.  The problem is one that becomes acute in multitasking:
anything may change under you without notice, at any time.
                                   Steve J.