PDF widget print quality
I want to use the PDF widget to print a PDF with additional markings added in LiveCode. Showing a simple PDF tax form in Widget 1 at 100% scale, I tried this script: on p1 get the pageRect of widget 1 open printing with dialog print card from (item 1 to 2 of it) to (item 3 to 4 of it) into it close printing end p1 This prints a full page at the proper size, but not with acceptable print quality; everything is slightly blurred and pixellated. How can I get a good quality printout? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: LockLoc and grab
Let me try to clarify the problem I stated. I am not trying to remove the button, I am trying to use the “grab” command to let a user move the button around the window by dragging it. If I use a script to “set the loc” of a button to somewhere outside that group’s rectangle - the group will resize if its lockLoc property is false (thus keeping the relocated button visible); - but the button will disappear if the group’s lockLoc property is true. But when I use the “grab” command to relocate the button outside the group’s current rectangle the group does not resize even if its lockLoc property is false. > A group with lockLoc set to false does not resize itself when an object in it > is moved by a ?grab? command. Is this a bug? Is there a simple workaround? > > Recipe using 10.0.0 dp6 on an intel Mac: > > Create a button with this script: > on mouseDown; grab me; end mouseDown. > Group the button. Confirm that the group?s lockLoc property is false. Then > with the browse tool, drag the button past the edge of the group. The button > disappears. > ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
LockLoc and grab
A group with lockLoc set to false does not resize itself when an object in it is moved by a “grab” command. Is this a bug? Is there a simple workaround? Recipe using 10.0.0 dp6 on an intel Mac: Create a button with this script: on mouseDown; grab me; end mouseDown. Group the button. Confirm that the group’s lockLoc property is false. Then with the browse tool, drag the button past the edge of the group. The button disappears. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Comparative speed in switching among groups
Many thanks to Richard, for his interesting results and for the reminder that speed testing is pretty easy. I ran a similar test on a slightly different task--flipping among 50 different groups, or 50 different cards--and got similar results. Adding a “lock messages” sped up the card option by a factor of 4, but the group option was much, much faster even then. I’m trying to make it possible to scan quickly through a long document. The remarks of Richard and Alex raise these questions for me: 1. Is LC recalculating the line wraps of all fields every time we go to a card? Is it not doing that when a hidden field on a card is shown (or is the field somehow “ready to go” even when the field is hidden)? 2. On the question of resizing: One possibility is to adjust groups when (i.e., just before) they are shown. But would it be speedier to do this in advance, when nothing else is happening? The User Guide says “timer based messaging [is] ideal where you want your user interface to remain responsive.” I’m not sure exactly how to do this, but it seems like on a resize event one could make a list of the hidden groups that need to be adjusted, and call them one at a time with something like send “upDateGroupLayout oneGroupID” to me in 10 milliseconds. Is that right? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Comparative speed in switching among groups
Does anyone have practical experience or an understanding of the engine that would cast light on the relative speed of some alternative ways of doing things? I want to switch among a number of different groups, each of which may contain its own fields, graphics, buttons, and images. Possible approaches: - Have many different cards, each with a group peculiar to it, and GO TO each card as desired, or - Have one card, with many different groups, and SHOW/HIDE the groups as desired, or - Have many different cards, each with a group peculiar to it, and COPY a group from an unseen card to a single card that is always seen (and DELETE the unwanted group on that single card). There are other considerations that affect a choice among these methods, but my concern here is the speed with which I can switch from displaying one group to displaying another. I am wondering whether at some level these methods all amount to the same thing from the engine’s point of view (since everything is in RAM in any case). Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Pasting text and images together
I do not know how my problems accessing the rawClipboardData were overcome,
but I succeeded in reading the array values there. So I was able to address my
original question of how to reconstruct in LiveCode a combination of text and
image copied from another program. Conclusion thus far: no success. If
anyone is interested in this and might have some further suggestions, read on.
When I use the control key to invoke from the contextual menu “copy image” on a
web page, the fullClipboardData[“image”] gets a string of humanly
unintelligible characters that, when used as the text of a LiveCode image
object, shows the copied image. I did this for the picture of Robert Cailliau
on webpage https://livecode.com/core-benefits-of-livecode/. Call this String A.
To see how this information might be stored when I have copied both text and
image, I selected from the word before to the word after that same picture,
chose “Copy,” and then inspected the rawClipboardData["com.apple.flat-rtfd”],
which seemed the most promising candidate of the various clipboardData array
values. Call this String B.
Something that looks kind of like String A appears in String B, but it is not
the same.
At char 4097 of String B I see the first few characters of the beginning of
String A, and think this might define the PNG data to follow. But what follows
is not the same as String A.
Here’s the start of string A:
âPNG
IHDR,,y}éusRGBÆŒÈDeXIfMM*ái††,†,ÿ`ÇÁ@IDATxÏΩ
And here’s char 4097ff of String B;
âPNG
IHDR,,y}éu IDATxúÏΩ{¨mYv÷˜sƵˆ„ÏÛ∏˜ú{Îvuuwuπ‹.€Ìˆ«!,d«2$qä¯a«9éCj,d°!dÅ"EâàB
So my hope that String A could somehow be extracted from String B and used to
“paste” the included image was disappointed.
David Epstein
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Re: Pasting text and images together
Paul, getting the keys of the rawClipboardData worked for me too. What didn’t work was trying to read the values. See this part of my script, I hope shown this time without the asterisks gMail added before: lock clipboard … put the keys of the rawClipboardData into myK3 ## THIS WORKS … repeat for each line k in myK3 try put the rawClipboardData[k] into temp[n] ## DOESN’T WORK catch myError put myError into e4[n] ## ERROR IS TRIGGERED end try add 1 to n end repeat unlock clipboard > From: Paul Dupuis > To: use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Subject: Re: Pasting text and images together? > Message-ID: <3814cd2a-0f20-2bbb-8783-42fc57e68...@researchware.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > Since my method didn't work, I'd try Marks, namely to put the keys of > the clipboard array into a variable to look at > > on mouseUp > ? lock clipboard > ? put the keys of the clipboarddata into tKeys1 > ? put the keys of the fullclipboarddata into tKeys2 > ? put the keys of the rawclipboarddata into tkeys3 > ? breakpoint > ? unlock clipboard > end mouseUp > > I tested this in LC 10dp6 and it works. Once you see what keys are > present with your mixed text and images copied to the clipboard, you can > choose which clipboard array and keys to work with to get the data. > > -- Paul > > >> On 9/2/2023 10:36 AM, David Epstein via use-livecode wrote: >> Many thanks to Paul Dupuis and Mark Waddingham. The script below tries to >> test their suggestions. Using 10.0.0 dp5 on an Intel Mac, and watching >> execution after the breakpoint, I get errors at each "try" in the script. >> So it does not seem that I can write the fullClipboardData >> or rawClipboardData to an array variable; and it does not seem that I can >> access any element of the rawClipboardData array. Further advice is >> welcome. >> >> Best wishes, >> David Epstein >> >> *on* a2 >> >> *lock* clipboard >> >> *put* the keys of the clipboardData into myK1 >> >> *put* the keys of the fullClipboardData into myK2 >> >> *put* the keys of the rawClipboardData into myK3 >> >> *breakpoint* >> >> *try* >> >> *put* the fullClipboardData into ta2 >> >> *catch* myError >> >> *put* myError into e2 >> >> *end* *try* >> >> *try* >> >> *put* the rawClipboardData into ta3 >> >> *catch* myError >> >> *put* myError into e3 >> >> *end* *try* >> >> *put* 1 into n >> >> *repeat* for each line k in myK3 >> >> *try* >> >> *put* the rawClipboardData[k] into temp[n] >> >> *catch* myError >> >> *put* myError into e4[n] >> >> *end* *try* >> >> *add* 1 to n >> >> *end* *repeat* >> >> *unlock* clipboard >> >> *end* a2 ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Pasting text and images together?
Many thanks to Paul Dupuis and Mark Waddingham. The script below tries to test their suggestions. Using 10.0.0 dp5 on an Intel Mac, and watching execution after the breakpoint, I get errors at each "try" in the script. So it does not seem that I can write the fullClipboardData or rawClipboardData to an array variable; and it does not seem that I can access any element of the rawClipboardData array. Further advice is welcome. Best wishes, David Epstein *on* a2 *lock* clipboard *put* the keys of the clipboardData into myK1 *put* the keys of the fullClipboardData into myK2 *put* the keys of the rawClipboardData into myK3 *breakpoint* *try* *put* the fullClipboardData into ta2 *catch* myError *put* myError into e2 *end* *try* *try* *put* the rawClipboardData into ta3 *catch* myError *put* myError into e3 *end* *try* *put* 1 into n *repeat* for each line k in myK3 *try* *put* the rawClipboardData[k] into temp[n] *catch* myError *put* myError into e4[n] *end* *try* *add* 1 to n *end* *repeat* *unlock* clipboard *end* a2 ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Pasting text and images together?
To clarify my original question: I'm not expecting the built-in paste command to handle this task; I'm wondering if I can script my own paste command to handle it. Richmond, I can write a script to "paste" an image by itself (by creating an image and setting its text to clipboardData["image"]). But is there some way I can access both the text and the image that are on the clipboard after I have copied a combination of those from, e.g., a web browser? (Pasting to Apple Notes confirms that the clipboard contains both text and image.) ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Pasting text and images together?
From a web browser, or from programs like Word or (Apple) Notes, it is possible to copy to the clipboard a single selection that includes both text and images. Is there any way to paste all of this information to LiveCode—for example, placing the text in fields and the imageData in image objects, or showing everything in one field by setting the imageSource of some characters in that field? After having copied such a collection of text and image information, the keys to the fullClipboardData seem only to include text and styled text options, with no indication of the images that are included on the clipboard. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Detecting when resizeStack is completed
How can I redraw objects after the user has resized the stack, but not continuously during the resize? Releasing the mouse at the end of a resize does not appear to send a mouseUp message. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Remote debugger error message
panagiotis m asked: @david How do you trigger this error? Could you provide a recipe? With the stacks that trigger the error it is hard to troubleshoot them without triggering the error. So I’m starting with an entirely new stack, and will report if I encounter the problem. I suspect the problem has something to do with a message that calls a handler in a stack-in-use. Best wishes, David > > > On Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 8:40?PM David Epstein via use-livecode > mailto:use-livecode@lists.runrev.com>> wrote: >> >> I?ve just started using LiveCode 9.6.9 and 10.0.0 DP 5 on two Intel > Macs, and can do very little without getting this error message: >> >> ?There was an error executing a script in stack > com.livecode.library.remotedebugger. No more information is available > because the stack is password protected.? ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Remote debugger error message
I’ve just started using LiveCode 9.6.9 and 10.0.0 DP 5 on two Intel Macs, and can do very little without getting this error message: “There was an error executing a script in stack com.livecode.library.remotedebugger. No more information is available because the stack is password protected.” I can click OK, but the error message soon returns. Any suggestions? Best wishes, David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
PDF widget and XPDFviewer
What is the relation between the widget “PDF” and the external “XPDFViewer” (both in Pro Features)? The latter offers more direct access to a few properties (e.g., totalCharacterCount), while the widget syntax is a little simpler. It does not appear that a PDF widget is a PDF Viewer, at least the widget’s name is not recognized as the name of a viewer when I try to call a function like XPDFViewer_Get(viewerName,property). So do I need either to create a widget or create a viewer? And are there non-obvious reasons to do one or the other? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Maximum field size
My testing attempts, like Bernd’s, show that the important “limits” are not just what LC can display in a field but what it can display without making things too slow. I am also wondering if the new polyGrid has different characteristics, either its absolute limits or its performance when heavily populated. Richard Gaskin asks “Why?” I have developed a set of routines to analyze tabular data. For KB or MB-sized files, it is convenient to display them in a field. It would be simplest if I could also load GB-sized files and use my routines unchanged, but I accept that this is impractical. But in order to design workarounds I’d like to get as much clarity as possible on what limits I am working around. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Maximum field size
Thanks to Bernd for this: > Maximum length of a line in a field: > 65,536 characters storage > No more than 32,786 pixels wide for display This seems to mean we can have a 65k long line only if each character’s width is around half a pixel. And that if the character width is 10 pixels the maximum line is 6,553 characters. Or does “for display” mean something else? And, if we respect the line length limit, is the number of lines in a field limited only by however much of minimum(RAM, LC’s 4GB “total addressable space”) is not being used by something else? So for example would trying to load a 2.1 GB variable in a field surpass the 4GB limit, because the variable and the field would each need 2.1 GB? Best wishes, David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Maximum field size
How many rows or columns or characters can reasonably be displayed in a LiveCode field? A 1.39 GB text file seems pretty clearly to surpass the limit, but how much do I need to subdivide it? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Livecode performance problem
I didn’t text the speed, but why not put fld A into x[1] put fld B into x[2] put fld C into x[3] put fld D into x[4] combine x by column return x > > I have a set of fields, call them A, B, C, and D. Each has the same > number of lines. Each field has different text (per line) > > I need to combine the data - frequently - into a form that look like: > > C> ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Chart widget question
Using LC 10 dp2, I am trying to script the creation of a chart widget. My command “create widget myName as chart in group myMain” creates only a small gray box. The LC command “New Widget/Chart” creates a line chart, ready to be modified. What is the LC command doing that I am not? Or: how do I find the script that LC runs when the “New Widget/Chart” command is chosen? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Is there a way to create a generic setprop handler?
Control “A” has many custom properties that are set by a variety of other controls. If Control “A” has a "setProp property1” handler, it can react when property1 gets set. But is there a way to give Control “A” a general handler that will be triggered whenever any of its custom properties is set? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Using LiveCode with Mac Photos App
I want to allow selection of some images from my Mac Photos library and show them as “referenced” images in a LiveCode stack. Is there an efficient way to do this? What would be great is to open Photos, drag images from there to my LiveCode stack, and record in LiveCode the file location of the original image. But this seems not to work from within Photos, only with images that have been exported (e.g., I can drag exported images from my desktop to a LiveCode stack and get the dragData[“files”]). Is there any way from within Photos to gain access to the file locations for convenient use by LiveCode? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Shaping an image to fit in a polygon
Jacqueline Gay’s suggestion is excellent, and by exactly aligning the rect of the polygon with the rect of the image being “trimmed”, I can avoid having the image centered or repeated. See script below. I am still wondering what goes wrong with my alphaChannel approach to showing irregularly shaped images. Is there some imprecision in the “within” function? This would be important to know for other uses of it. David Epstein on imageToGrc gID # fills graphic id gID with image it is positioned on; works for polygon, oval, regular, or rectangle set the linesize of grc id gID to 0 set the filled of grc id gID to false wait 1 ticks # seems needed so that linesize of 0 is respected hide grc id gID import snapshot from rectangle globalRect(the rect of control id gID) put the short id of image (the number of images) into imID set the rect of image id imID to the rect of grc id gID set the filled of grc id gID to true set the backgroundPattern of grc id gID to imID show grc id gID set the loc of grc id gID to the bottomRight of grc id gID ## to make it visible hide image id imID ## note: don’t delete, or polygon loses the image choose browse tool end imageToGrc function globalRect theRect return globalLoc(item 1 to 2 of theRect),globalLoc(item 3 to 4 of theRect) end globalRect ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Shaping an image to fit in a polygon
I am trying to create an image that will appear to have the shape of some arbitrary polygon. The idea is to set the image's alphaData so that pixels within the polygon are opaque, and those outside the polygon are transparent. The scripts below create a rectangular image of whatever is under the polygon's enclosing rectangle, and then adjust the alphaData of that new image. But while the new image gets trimmed a bit, the result does not match the shape of the designated polygon. Any thoughts? David Epstein on action gID ## gID is the short id of the polygon import snapshot from rectangle globalRect(the rect of control id gID) put the short id of image (the number of images) into imID set the width of image id imID to the width of grc id gID set the height of image id imID to the height of grc id gID set the loc of image id imID to the loc of grc id gID set the polyCrop of image id imID to gID end action function globalRect theRect return globalLoc(item 1 to 2 of theRect),globalLoc(item 3 to 4 of theRect) end globalRect setProp polyCrop polyID -- crop target image's alphadata to show only points within grc id polyID put the filled of grc id polyID into fillState set the filled of grc id polyID to true put the rect of the target into r put numToChar(255) into P ## opaque put numToChar(0) into T ## transparent repeat with y = 1+item 2 of r to item 4 of r ## SEE NOTE* repeat with x = 1+item 1 of r to item 3 of r put x,y into myPoint if within(grc id polyID,myPoint) then put P after hold else put T after hold end repeat end repeat set the filled of grc id polyID to fillState set the alphaData of the target to hold end polyCrop * NOTE: the "1+" is these statements is my effort to step through the exact number of pixels in the width and height of the image. The number of values in the series (item 1 of the rect of the image) to (item 3 of the rect of the image), inclusive, is 1+ the width of the image. (But I am not really sure whether to add 1 to the first value or subtract 1 from the last value). ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Implementing UNDO
LC’s built in undo does not appear to undo anything done by something I have
scripted.
My approach is to use a global array variable “u” to store information needed
to undo the most recent action. On each action, an “undoInit” puts empty into
u, after (if necessary) cleaning up anything u’s values indicate is left over
from the prior action (e.g., actually deleting an object that had been only
“pseudo-deleted” (hidden) so as to make the user’s choice of deletion
undoable). Then the appropriate new values are loaded into u. The main
elements I use are
# u["cardID"] = short id of the card where the undoable action was taken
# u["stackName"] = short name of the stack where the undoable action was taken
# u["changed"], list of objects being changed, each line has: propName,objectID
# u[propName,objectID] holds prior value of that property of that object (one
key/value for each line of u["changed"]
# u["removed"], list of objectID,cardID,stackName for objects being
pseudo-removed
# u["added"], list of objectID,cardID,stackName for objects being added
# u["cardsRemoved"], list of cards being pseudo-removed, each line has:
cardID,cardNumber
# u["cardsAdded"], list of cards being added, each line has: cardID,cardNumber
The “Undo” command makes sure we’re on card id u[“cardID”] of stack
u[“stackName”}, then checks for non-empty values of
u[“changed”],u[“removed”],u[“added”],u{“cardsRemoved”], and u[“cardsAdded”],
and uses values stored in u to restore the prior state of things, while
reloading u with values reporting the state of things now being reversed.
For text, I load u[“changed”] with “htmlText”,, and load
u[“htmlText”,] with the htmlText of that field before the latest
editing.
David Epstein
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Smooth scrolling
My impression is that a LiveCode field scrolls less smoothly than a comparable field in some other programs, such as MS Word and Scrivener. If I paste about 25,000 words into a word wrapped scrolling field, and then drag the scrolling thumb up and down there is much more jumpiness than I see when I do the same thing to the same text in those other programs. (LC 9.6 on Mac OS 10.12.6). Do others see the same thing? Does anyone know the underlying cause of this, or a remedy? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Updating a menubar button on Mac
I can use a “mouseEnter” handler to update a menu button’s contents just before the user displays that menu. But if that menu button is part of the stack’s menubar group on a Mac, the Mac menu does not seem to receive the mouseEnter message and the menu is not updated. Is there a workaround? Thank you! David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Saving stacks before closing
I want to give the user a choice of whether to save changes before closing a stack. To script this, I will handle the closeStackRequest message, and find a way to keep track of whether the stack in question has been changed since it was last saved. What I am trying to figure out is under what circumstances LiveCode takes care of this without my scripting it. In the LiveCode IDE, trying to close an unsaved stack seems automatically to ask me whether I want to save changes (but I have not found a handler in the backscripts that implements this). This is true of stacks I have created with the IDE “new stack” tool and then try to close. Is it also true of stacks I have created by script? And what happens in a standalone? Does this feature still work there? In short, do I need to script an option to save changed stacks before closing, or can I rely on LiveCode to take care of this? Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: DataGrid question...
This is more or less Jacqueline Gay’s suggestion, but with a couple of wrinkles. You do need to adjust for the horizontal scroll of the field (I’m not sure about borders or margin). And if I am not mistaken sometimes “the tabStops” will not have an entry for each tab, if the column width stays constant. My approach is to keep a global called gColGuide, which gets reloaded when column widths change. It has one line per column, with leftEdge,0,rightEdge,0 in each line. The function used to load gColGuide is shown below. put word 1 of the clickLoc into x put word 2 of the clickLine into L — line number put the hScroll of fld “table” into hs put colGuide() into gColGuide function mCol x,hs — returns column number for horizontal pixel x, consulting gColGuide. hs is the field’s hScroll. global gColGuide add hs to x put 1 into c repeat for each line k in gColGuide if x > item 1 of k and x < item 3 of k then return c add 1 to c end repeat return empty end mCol-- Any need to adjust for borders and margins? function colGuide — used to load gColGuide with one line per column; each line has left,0,right,0 set itemDelimiter to tab put the number of items in fld "headers" of into cz set itemDelimiter to comma get the tabStops of fld “table” put "0," before it put the left of fld “table” into fL repeat with n = 1 to min(cz,(-1 + the number of items in it)) -- so that colGuide will only cover the used columns. put fL+8 + item n of it,0,fL+8 + item n+1 of it,0 & return after hold end repeat if cz > n then put item 3 of line -1 of hold - item 1 of line -1 of hold into w repeat with m = n+1 to cz get item 3 of line -1 of hold put it,0,w + it,0 & return after hold end repeat end if put fL into item 1 of hold return hold end colGuide David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Reading and writing globals by script
I want to write a function that will read and write to any named global. What I have below seems to work, but I’m not sure quite why. Usually, “put gName into oldVal” for a global named gName would put the value, not the name, of that global into oldVal. But here it does not. function globalSwap gName,gVal -- Return the existing value of global gName and load gVal into that same global do "global" && gName do "put" && gName && "into oldVal" # "put gName into oldVal" doesn't work here. do "put gVal into" && gName return oldVal end globalSwap Is there some way to write this with fewer or no uses of “do”? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: script for redo/undo text?
I cannot help with the project of "unlimited" undo/redo, but a simple one-layer undo for fields is not hard to implement. Sean Cole's suggestion that we should record the field state whenever a key is pressed I think does more than is wanted; if you type 10 characters, you don't want to choose Undo 10 times to get rid of them. My approach is to record the field state on keypresses ONLY if there is a text selection (about to be lost when the key is pressed) rather than an insertion point. If text has been added but no text has been lost, you don’t need an Undo command to remove what was added. If you also record the field's state before anything is typed in it, and before the Undo command itself is executed, and before any scripted handlers change the field, I think this will resemble ordinary Word Processor behavior. on keyDown if the selectedText is not empty then uStoreFieldState the short id of the selectedField pass keyDown end keyDown -- and a similar handler for the other keys Sean mentions, although I don't think for arrow keys. on uStoreFieldState fID -- fID is the short id of the field global u put the selectedChunk into myChunk put fID into u["fieldModified"] put the htmlText of fld id fID into u[fID] put word 2 of myChunk into u["chunkA"] put word 4 of myChunk into u["chunkB"] end uStoreFieldState Then on undo, you read the values of u to revise the field, and reload u with the state of the field just before undoing. I store the chunk information so that undo can restore the selection as well as the text to its prior state. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: A question about openCard
Jacqueline is correct: if I’m not debugging, the execution contexts is not in the list of recentCards. But my palette still does not appear in the list of recentCards. Further testing reveals: although activating a palette triggers a resumeStack message, and leaving a palette triggers a resumeStack message in the stack activated, palettes do not get listed in “the recentCards”. So I think I will resort to a global. In my main stacks, a resumeStack handler should — compare the name of this stack with a global “gActiveStack” — if they are not the same, carry out init actions, and put the name of this stack into gActiveStack. David Epstein Jacqueline Gay wrote: I wouldn't expect the execution contexts to be in the list but it sounds like that's a result of the debugging process itself. Is it different if you just log it to the message box without the debugger? get the recentCards put it ... etc Does the palette not appear anywhere in the list at all? > On Jun 8, 2019, at 9:13 AM, David Epstein wrote: > > Several people gave helpful replies to my question, including pointing out > that this is a case of “resumeStack”, not “openCard”: > > Is there some simple way that an openCard handler can branch based on what > card it is coming from? > > When a user goes to a different card in a stack, or to a different stack, I > use an “openCard” handler to set things up. But I do not want those actions > taken if the user is merely “returning” to a card after using a palette tool, > or after a palette tool has been opened. > > Jacqueline Gay suggested using the “recentCards” to determine what card the > user is coming from. So I wrote this handler: > > function resumedTheSameCard > -- call this in a "resumeStack" handler. > -- returns true if palette "tTools" has just been active and the > resumeStack message was received by the same card that had been active when > that palette was activated. > -- returns false if we are coming from a different card, either directly or > with a palette activation in between. > get the recentCards > if the long id of stack "tTools" is not in line 2 of it then return false > -- nb should work even if palette "tTools" stack has several cards > return line 1 of it = line 3 of it > end resumedTheSameCard > > But this does not work. When I debug, I see that line 2 of the recentCards > does not refer to a card on my palette stack (“tTools”); it refers instead to > a card in the stack “Execution Contexts”. > > Why is that LiveCode system stack appearing in the recentCards, and why is my > palette not appearing there? > > Many thanks. > > David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: A question about openCard
Several people gave helpful replies to my question, including pointing out that this is a case of “resumeStack”, not “openCard”: Is there some simple way that an openCard handler can branch based on what card it is coming from? When a user goes to a different card in a stack, or to a different stack, I use an “openCard” handler to set things up. But I do not want those actions taken if the user is merely “returning” to a card after using a palette tool, or after a palette tool has been opened. Jacqueline Gay suggested using the “recentCards” to determine what card the user is coming from. So I wrote this handler: function resumedTheSameCard -- call this in a "resumeStack" handler. -- returns true if palette "tTools" has just been active and the resumeStack message was received by the same card that had been active when that palette was activated. -- returns false if we are coming from a different card, either directly or with a palette activation in between. get the recentCards if the long id of stack "tTools" is not in line 2 of it then return false -- nb should work even if palette "tTools" stack has several cards return line 1 of it = line 3 of it end resumedTheSameCard But this does not work. When I debug, I see that line 2 of the recentCards does not refer to a card on my palette stack (“tTools”); it refers instead to a card in the stack “Execution Contexts”. Why is that LiveCode system stack appearing in the recentCards, and why is my palette not appearing there? Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
A question about openCard
Is there some simple way that an openCard handler can branch based on what card it is coming from? When a user goes to a different card in a stack, or to a different stack, I use an “openCard” handler to set things up. But I do not want those actions taken if the user is merely “returning” to a card after using a palette tool, or after a palette tool has been opened. I’m not sure I understand the full range of events that “close” a card so that returning to it triggers “openCard.” Does this happen if I set an insertion point or select text in an unlocked field in a palette, or the user types there? Does it happen if I open a palette, or move a palette, or if the user clicks on the palette? Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Multiple regression in LiveCode?
Has anyone written a LiveCode function that will take a table of 2 or more independent variables and 1 dependent variable, and return coefficients, intercept, and standard errors for a multiple regression? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Repeat for each line of a variable or field?
I've done a little bit of speed testing showing extremely slight differences, but wonder if anyone who understands the "engine" can advise on this: Is there a difference between these two approaches? (1) put fld 1 into txt; repeat for each line k in txt; etc. and (2) repeat for each line k in fld 1; etc. For no very good reason, I tend to do (1), but have begun to wonder: for a very lengthy field 1, does my writing to a variable use up more RAM, and so perhaps injure performance? Or is the engine in effect writing to a variable either way? Is a variable read more quickly than a field? Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Large files crash on Windows 10
Does anyone else have problems dealing with large files on Windows 10? My main LiveCode tool is a stack of about 1.5 MB, and I use it to create, save, and open LiveCode stacks that store text and graphics. These "content" stacks can be anywhere from a few kilobytes to 50 MB or more. On an iMac, these all run smoothly. On Windows 10, my larger content stacks (>10 MB) will sometimes close unexpectedly, or crash LiveCode entirely. The typical trigger is either executing a save command, or clicking on a list of cards to navigate to a card that contains a large table of text. Does anyone have relevant experiences or suggested remedies or ways of better diagnosing the problem? Perhaps relevant is that on the Mac I mostly use LC 5.5, on Windows 10 I am using LC Community 9.0 (dp4). Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Area of regular polygon triangles
While trying Mike Bonner's suggestion of "manual" measuring, I learned the answer: a regular polygon whose official length is L and width is W is inscribed in the oval whose length is L and width is W. So for an equilateral triangle the area will be 3/4 * 3^.5 * R^2 (where R = L = W). David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Area of regular polygon triangles
If a regular polygon has 4 or 8 sides it seems to be inscribed so that all points touch the square defined by the object’s height and width, which means that it should be fairly easy to deduce the polygon’s area. But with 3 sides, the triangle appears slightly smaller than the maximum size that could fit into that square. Is there some math that would give me the area of that triangle from the height and width of the square (i.e., the official height and width of the polygon object)? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Text with accented characters
I am importing some text where certain characters do not look right. When I test their charToNum values I get, for example, 226 and 232. 226 is shown as a comma, but should be a lower case a with a circumflex, and 232 is shown as an upper case e with an umlaut but should be a lower case e with accent grave. Is there some font I can choose, or some other action I should take, to get these (and others) to display properly? David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
HilitedLine of list field lost when unlocked field selected
This seems like a problem that I’ve solved before, but I can’t recall how. With a line hilited in a locked list-behavior-true field, I can use the mouse to select text in any of a number of unlocked fields without disturbing my list’s hilite. But if I use the tabKey to move the insertion point or selection from one unlocked field to the next, the list hilite is lost. How can I preserve it? Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents
Thanks for the responses on this. I used Bernd’s tool and did some more tests, and found some things that may be helpful to others. While the left and right margins of a field are meant literally (a 5 pixel left margin leaves 5 white pixels to the left of the text), the top margin is more complicated, no doubt owing to the variety of textHeights that need to be accommodated. For example, a margin of "0" will often clip the top of the text--as if "0" meant a "negative margin". 6 seems to be a magic default value for a field's top margin, which avoids clipping the content. With horizontal gridlines visible, a 6 pixel buffer makes the top row the same height as the other rows. And with a 6 pixel buffer the formattedHeight of the field will exactly match the formattedHeight of the field's content (although a non-zero borderwidth or a horizontal scrollbar changes this). Thus--what I wondered about in my original post--with a margin less than 6 the formattedHeight of the field is less than the formattedHeight of the content; the content is in effect clipped. At smaller textHeights this will be visible, while at larger textHeights only white space above the characters is clipped. I was trying to answer two questions, and I think I'm pretty close. 1. How do I make sure that the field's contents are all visible if I set the field's height to the formattedHeight? Answer: Set the top and bottom margins to 6. For the left and right margins, even 1 pixel should be enough to keep everything visible. 2. What margins will provide a symmetrical look for a text box? A top margin of 6 doesn’t look like a 6 pixel margin; how it looks depends on the textHeight. I estimate that its apparent height is one fourth of the effective textHeight, and I use this to size the other margins in the “tightMargins” handler below. While the top margin of 6 looks good with horizontal gridlines, without them (and especially if you show a text baseline) it looks too small compared to the space between subsequent lines. To match that larger space, in effect doubling the apparent top margin, add one third of the effective textHeight. See “niceMargins” handler below. Example of usage: set the margins of fld 1 to the niceMargins of fld 1 set the height of fld 1 to the formattedHeight of fld 1 getProp niceMargins put the effective textHeight of the target into t put round(t*7/12) into m1 put round(t/3) into m2 return m1,6+m2,m1,m1 end niceMargins getProp tightMargins put round(.25*the effective textHeight of the target) into m return m,6,m,max(6,m) end tightMargins Improvements to these are welcomed. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
FormattedHeight of a field and its contents
Is there somewhere an explanation of how a field’s textSize, borderWidth, margins, and formattedHeight interact? According to the dictionary entry for “formattedHeight”, a field’s formattedHeight is calculated “including top and bottom margins”, while the formattedHeight of a chunk is calculated “disregarding margins.” That does not seem consistent with these results for a field whose textSize is 16 and whose margin is 4: the formattedHeight of line 1 of fld 1 19 the formattedHeight of line 1 to 2 of fld 1 38 the formattedHeight of fld 1 15 if there’s one line of text the formattedHeight of fld 1 34 if there are two lines of text. Even though there are top and bottom margins of 4, the field’s formattedHeight is smaller, rather than larger, than the formattedHeight of its contents. A perhaps related question: Why does a field margin of zero clip the visible text at the top and left? Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Identifying empty lines of text
I use “the number of words in myString = 0” to test whether a line of text appears empty, since I want a line with only space characters to be understood as empty. But a line of text I pasted from elsewhere contained an invisible character whose charToNum value is 202, and this was counted as a word by my script. Is there a better way to test for a line of text that has no visible characters? Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: Auto scrolling a locked field when mouse comes to edge
To clarify: For a locked field with autohilite and traversalOn both true, the “built in” auto scrolling works the same as with an unlocked field. I’m looking for a way to script this kind of auto scrolling with autohilite and traversalOn both false. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Auto scrolling a locked field when mouse comes to edge
When the mouse drags across text in an unlocked (horizontally and vertically) scrolling field, the field automatically scrolls at a legible rate to display the (previously hidden) text that the mouse was dragging toward. Has anyone scripted a way to reproduce this effect for a locked field? Many thanks. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
