>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.
In SC, it is possible to change some graphic object types to other types.
In both programs, all graphic objects have a rectangle property; the
request was less concerned with how the data is stored internally than
with how this rect is presented to the user.
All we need is a special case for line objects: When selected, using the
current hit-test method, only draw the handles for the end points and do
not draw the other handles. Also, lines need a special-case mouse
tracking method, in which end points can be moved more independently of
the bounding rect.
It would seem at first glance that the data storage for the object and
all other routines are fine as implemnted currently. All we need is a
variation of the draw method and theh mouse tracking method and we should
have it.
>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.
If we could have only the end points drawn it would make the whole thing
so much more clean-looking to the user.
>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.
You're right, SC doesn't do it for polygons, which was a similar drag
until they cleaned up their line routines. ;)
- Richard Gaskin
Fourth World
Multimedia Design and Development for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and the Web
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