jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Joseph N. Hall) (07/29/89)
In article <8156@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes: >... Still, >wouldn't it have been nice if Apple had added list items to dialogs? >It would save us all some coding. ... This reminds me of an idea I had recently (probably not unique) which is that a CDEF incorporating an entire vertical stack or horizontal row of radio buttons would be awfully convenient ... you would supply an array of titles in the refcon field, and the CDEF would work like a properly-managed set of "ordinary" radio buttons, returning values of 1, 2, 3, etc., depending upon which button was currently "on." I have no idea why Apple didn't supply this control or something similar to it with some version of the system software. One of these days I'll write it ... v v sssss|| joseph hall || 4116 Brewster Drive v v s s || jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Internet) || Raleigh, NC 27606 v sss || SP Software/CAD Tool Developer, Mac Hacker and Keyboardist -----------|| Disclaimer: NCSU may not share my views, but is welcome to.
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (07/30/89)
In article <3530@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> jnh@ecemwl.UUCP (Joseph N. Hall) writes: >This reminds me of an idea I had recently (probably not unique) which is >that a CDEF incorporating an entire vertical stack or horizontal row of >radio buttons would be awfully convenient ... you would supply an array of >titles in the refcon field, and the CDEF would work like a properly-managed >set of "ordinary" radio buttons, returning values of 1, 2, 3, etc., >depending upon which button was currently "on." I have no idea why >Apple didn't supply this control or something similar to it with some >version of the system software. One of these days I'll write it ... It's a very interesting idea; thanks for sharing it. The advantages are obvious, which is why I'll only deal with the disadvantages here. (And *not* because I am a negative, brooding figure, as some would suggest. I write most of my messages on a portable computer while skipping through sunny, windblown fields of daisies, humming a merry tune and thinking good thoughts about my fellow travellers on spaceship earth.) The problems have to do with titles and positions. One title isn't enough; you could introduce rules for partitioning single titles into multiples, but they would be unlikely to pass internationalization muster. So you have to have some way of storing multiple titles. Probably the best way would be to have an associated 'STR#' resource. Then you have the individual button positions. Each has its own rectangle. I am leery of automatic positioning schemes, since you lose power and whatever you decide on will probably be wrong for some desired layout. Again, the solution would appear to be an associated 'nrct' resource. The association between the resources could be as simple as giving them all the same resource id. These problems are soluble, so the idea is probably worth pursuing. Please let us know if you actually get around to doing this. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "Don't talk to me about disclaimers! I invented disclaimers!" - The Censored Hacker
amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker) (08/01/89)
In article <8173@hoptoad.uucp>, tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) writes: > (And *not* because I am a negative, brooding figure, as some would > suggest. I write most of my messages on a portable computer while > skipping through sunny, windblown fields of daisies, humming a merry > tune and thinking good thoughts about my fellow travellers on spaceship > earth.) Many giggles. :-). > So you have to have some way of storing multiple titles. I've occassionally thought of different ways of doing this. Unfortunately, most of them involve reinventing parts of the dialog manager, but... One thing that that I've considered would be to have, say, a 'CTL#' that would contain a list of CNTL resources. This way you could lay out the items any way you wanted within the overall rectangle, and you could deal with with titles and so on more easily. Of course, you could shoot yourself in the foot by having scrollbars in your radio button clusters, but, hey, it's a Mac, right :-)? Just my $.02, -- Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation -- amanda@intercon.uu.net | ...!uunet!intercon!amanda