On Wed, 28 Jul 1999, Richard Gaskin wrote:
> >> >The "line" tool is a paint tool. There are no "draw" tools in
> >> >MetaCard. There is a "line" graphic style, though, which you can get
> >> >at with:
> >> >set the style of the templateGraphic to "line"
> >> >choose graphic tool
> >>
> >> Almost there. Adjusting the endpoints of the graphic does not seem
> >> possible, at least not in the manner users are accustomed for line
> >> objects.
> >
> >The object is always a rect, if that's what you mean. This
> >characteristic would be extremely difficult to change.
> >
> >> Any chance we'll see the line style have selection/interaction behaviors
> >> like standard line objects in drawing programs?
> >
> >There's always a chance, but it'd be good to know exactly what's wrong
> >with the way it works now first.
>
> In drawing programs for Mac OS and Windows (can't think of an exception
> to these behaviors but there might be one), a line object is drawn by
> dragging from the starting point to the ending point of the line. Once
> the line is created, it can be selected by clicking on it, and the
> selection is indicated by a single handle at each of the two end points.
> Dragging either of these handles adjusts that end point.
>
> For example, suppose you drag from 100,100 to 200,200. This creates a
> line at a 45 degree angle, sloped downward from top left to bottom right
> (MC does this ok). Clicking on the graphic should produce only two end
> points (MC draws four)
Actually 8.
, and it should be possible to drag the first end
> point to 300,100, thus changing the slope of the line to upwards from
> lower-left to upper right (attempting this manipulation in MC will only
> resize the bounding rect of the line, but will not allow adjustment of
> the direction of slope).
>
> See Canvas, SuperCard, Freehand, MacDraw, PowerPoint, SuperPaint,
> Illustrator, InDesign, Quark, PageMaker, FrameMaker, FileMaker,
> AppleWorks, Word, Excel, CorelDraw, or any CAD package for examples of
> these line object behaviors.
As I said before, changing the way object selection and resizing is
handled would be hard because a whole new selection system would have
to be written. Also note that you can change the style of a graphic
in MetaCard, something you can't do in any of those programs, or even
in SuperCard, so it's important to maintain the object's rectangle.
Selection *is* only done by clicking on the line, though, and not the
whole rectangle. So it sound like if we just allow the coordinates to
flip when you drag through the center of the object that it would
allow you to do what you want, albeit with a few extra boxes showing
on screen when the object is selected. Adding this flip feature
should be relatively easy to do, though SuperCard doesn't do it for
polygons so there may be some hidden gotcha. I'll put it on the list,
though.
Regards,
Scott
> - Richard Gaskin
> Fourth World
> Multimedia Design and Development for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and the Web
> _____________________________________________________________________
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com
> US: 800-288-5825 Int'l: 323-225-3717 Fax: 323-225-0716
>
>
********************************************************
Scott Raney [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.metacard.com
MetaCard: You know, there's an easier way to do that...
