[comp.windows.misc] sunview API

bukovins@motcid.UUCP (Dave Bukovinsky) (12/08/90)

I apologize if this is a duplicate posting - there were problems with
postnews.


I have a problem conerning the use of canvases within the sunview API.
Sunview provides facilities to the programmer such that users can
select a range of text using the left & middle mouse buttons.  A good
example is shelltool or cmdtool, where the user can select a range of
text and its highlighted.  This text, then, to the application, becomes
the primary selection with regards to the selection server.  The API
provides this facility for tty and text subwindow types, but not for
canvas types (graphical).

Now, the application I am writing requires that I use the canvas type
of window, and I would like to have the user select a range of
(graphical) text using the mouse, highlight it, and make it the primary
selection for use by other sunview applications.

The only way I could think of to do this is to read each character
between the current cursor position and the mouse position, store it in
a (selection) buffer, and redraw it on the canvas highlighted.  It
seems veeeeeerrrryyyyy cumbersome to say the least....

Has anyone needed to do this before?  Is there a better solution?
(maybe an undocumented sunview feature or library function?)

PS.  I am running on sun 3/60's and 3/80's with SunOs 4.0.3.....

Feel free to e-mail me directly or post any suggestions to this
newsgroup.

thanks in advance
---dave


-- 
Dave Bukovinsky
Motorola Inc.
	phone: (708) 632-4753
	uucp: uunet!motcid!bukovins