fk00133r@uwasa.fi (Jari Perkiomaki FKR) (03/28/90)
Hi, I'm a novice HC programmer and faced with an irritating problem: I would like to have a pop-up background field with text in it, to be used anywhere in the stack. I don't want to make a pop-up card field because the stack is open-ended with tens of different-looking cards (only one background, however). I feel that the pop-up field should be independent of any specific card in the stack, so it must be in the background, right? Now, the only solution I could find so far is the following: on mouseUp put empty into text put "fld ""e&"About...""e into text show text put "Some text, not very much..." into text wait until the mouseClick hide fld "About..." end mouseUp The problem is that all of the text to be shown in this field must be written into the PUT statement in the middle of the handler. I've also found that, in some cases, the text is not even visible in the field :-( So any suggestions, please ? Thanks in advance, --Jari -- Jari K Perkiomaki, OH6BG, U of Vaasa * School of Modern Languages fk00133r@uwasa.fi Site 128.214.12.3 * PL 297, SF-65101 VAASA -- FINLAND My opinions (c) 1990. Patent pending.
krona@nada.kth.se (Kjell Krona) (03/28/90)
> I would like to have a pop-up background field with text in it, to > be used anywhere in the stack. One solution I have been using is to store the text in a global variable, and put it into the field when needed. Of course, if the text is not removed afterwards, it will eventually be stored on all cards. This can be easily accomplished with "opencard" and "closecard" handlers. If we assume that the field pops up by special action, we might write: on openStack global theHiddenText put field "Hidden text" into theHiddenText -- We assume that the text is stored on a hidden field -- on the first card end openStack on popUp global theHiddenText show field "Hidden text" put theHidddenText into field "Hidden text" end popUp on closeCard put empty into field "Hidden text" end closeCard on openCard global theHiddenText if the visible of field "Hidden text" is true then put theHiddenText into field "Hidden Text" end if end openCard I am writing this from the heart :-), so there may be errors in the scripts. I have used such techniques sucessfully, however. Hopes this helps! Kjell Krona krona@nada.kth.se Dept. of Architecture/Dept. of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science Royal Institute of Technology, Stockhom, Sweden
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (03/29/90)
In article <3221@draken.nada.kth.se> krona@nada.kth.se (Kjell Krona) writes: >> I would like to have a pop-up background field with text in it, to >> be used anywhere in the stack. > >One solution I have been using is to store the text in a global >variable, and put it into the field when needed. Of course, if the >text is not removed afterwards, it will eventually be stored on all >cards. This can be easily accomplished with "opencard" and "closecard" >handlers. Except that significant changes to a card in openStack and closeStack handlers create a performance hit and extra disk access that is easily perceived by the user. It's best to minimize card changes while opening and closing cards. Generally, it's possible to get the changes down to no more than hiding or showing a couple of fields or buttons, and that seems to be the case here. I'd bet that actually changing a field this way on every card movement would be a real bear. Unless it's a ton of text, it's not really going to use up that much disk space to instantiate it on every card. However, you should consider that it might be better just to put this kind of thing on a separate help card, so that there is no background field at all, just a card field on the help card. Judicious use of screen locking can even make it look very much like the field *is* popping up on the current card. Incidentally, for pop-up fields, I generally find that the appropriate visual effect is a dissolve. Example: lock screen show card field "card help" unlock screen with dissolve fast and vice versa for hiding it. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "Superhero stories could best be described as entertainment that externalizes childhood power fantasies." -- Timothy Fay on rec.arts.comics