On Jun 9, 2006, at 10:03 PM, Paul McNett wrote:
While useful, I think we should instead make general Format and InputMask properties, like in VFP.
So did I, but after playing around with it a bit, decided to go with this approach.
Format just plain sucks, IMO. It is way too cryptic to be of use. What would make more sense is to have properties that define the types of values the control accepts. We've already abstracted out SelectOnEntry, which is a VFP Format component; I think that other such abstractions would make more sense than trying to mimic VFP here.
InputMask is more interesting, as it has certain uses such as SSNs, phone numbers, and other pre-defined formats. I've started playing with such a property, but haven't come up with anything that works too well yet.
There is also the need to define acceptable characters, and non- acceptable characters. Again, I've played around with several approaches, but haven't come up with one that I really like yet.
I want to approach this as thinking about the problem that needs to be solved for each particular case. ForceCase may be used in some situations; in others, we may need to limit input to digits, periods and dashes, while in others we may have a spec that calls for three alphas, followed by 2 digits, followed by 6 mixed alphanumerics. A developer should be able to use the appropriate property to address that control's needs.
-- Ed Leafe -- http://leafe.com -- http://dabodev.com _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/dabo-dev
