On Thu, Feb 15, 2007 at 06:11:01PM -0500, Mike Caron wrote:
> On 2/15/07, S'orlok Reaves <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > > > Technically, this makes these features available
> > > to plotscripting strings, but to use them, you'd
> > > need to embed those characters directly into the
> > > plotscript file, which while doable, isn't very
> > > convenient. Or, you can use append ascii.... More
> > > thought on this is required.
> >
> > You could always invent your own markup. Like, "\n"
> > for newline, then "\c5{some string} some other string"
> > to make "some string" be the fifth color, and "some
> > other string" be the default.
>
> I have every intention to support codes like this, but not until I
> rewrite the textbox code :)
>
> The reason is this:
>
> Textboxes are, essentially, 8 strings displayed on top of eachother.
> Each string is limited to 40 characters by the very format they're
> stored in, since long before any type of code was possible. This means
> that any code embedded in the textbox takes up display character
> space. In other words, lets say you have a textbox in which Bob talks.
> Bob is, of course, customizable, so you use a code to sub in his name:
>
> "${H_}: Hello there, my friends and such!"
>
> That is exactly 40 characters. If the default name is "Bob", then this
> means that it will only take up 38 characters, leaving two wasted!
> Conversely, if the name is "Pedrovich" (shh), the string balloons to a
> massive 44 characters, and part of it is cut off.
>
> The solution is word wrapping, but this is not possible due to the
> "seprate strings" analogy. If you were to combine it into a single
> string (gluing it together with \n), then you get a different problem:
>
> "Pedrovich: Hello there, my friends and\n
> such!\n
> This is a fine day, is it not?"
>
> Obviously, if that hard line break after "such" was removed, this
> would work properly. But, we can't assume it isn't a hard break,
> because there are situations where it is (I assume you can think of
> one yourself).
>
> What to do? Well, first off, kill the 8-strings paradigm, and make a
> textbox one big string. Then, change the editor so that the user can
> just type, and it word wraps for them, and inserts hard line breaks
> when they hit enter, instead of after every physical line. Then,
> everything works nicely.
Backcompat for old text boxes will not be that easy. We can't assume
that existing text-boxes will look the same when treated as a long
wrapping string.
---
Bob the Hamster
_______________________________________________
ohrrpgce mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
