Re: [MacPerl] Prompt in choose file was Forms: parsing accented chars

[jwb@olympus.net (John W. Baxter)]

At 9:41 4/30/96, Stephane Jose wrote:
>here is another small questions about MacPerl's Mac standard dialogs:
>
>
>is it possible to add a prompt (like "Choose the file:") to
>
>        $filename = &MacPerl'Choose(&GUSI'AF_FILE, 0, "", "");
>
>like in

This relates to one of the Great Macintosh Mysteries:  what happened to the
prompt in the get file dialog.  This mystery goes back to day 1.  The
original call (SFGetFile) to the toolbox had/has a prompt string as input.
There's an item "in" the dialog for the prompt string, and the string
passed in is duly associated with the static text item.

But...the item is deliberately placed outside the window.  It's possible to
move it back in before the dialog is displayed, and then the prompt
appears.

Later programming interfaces have made some of this easier.

In early 1984, I wrote one app (in MacForth) which put another window
behind the dialog, and put the prompt in that window, just above the whole
dialog.  Because I hadn't found the out-of-window prompt item at that time.
Works, but not the right way.

And I don't know how to induce MacPerl to bring the prompt back into the
world.  In fact, I'm not sure that the item wasn't "borrowed" (by number)
to use for the directory hierarchy popup when that was added to the dialog.

And now the good news:  whatever is done is likely to not work the same in
Copland.

   --John

  --
   Each day is a gift.  That's why we call today "the present."
jwbaxter@olympus.net (John W. Baxter)  Port Ludlow, WA, USA