-- card: 15765 from stack: in.0
-- bmap block id: 0
-- flags: 0000
-- background id: 3797
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From: <BELSLEY%BCVMS.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> (DAVID A. BELSLEY)


Jakob Nielson of the Tech University of Denmark, in a recent hyperhack
comment, properly decries the fact that a closeField message is not sent
when the user clicks on a button.  This does effectively remove the value
of this message for doing field checking, and there is no good substitute.
He goes on to ask that the message always be given as long as the field has
not been changed.  That would be nice, but still not as good as it could
be.  Indeed, some sort of closeField message must be sent whenever a field
closes, whether the contents have been changed or not, or otherwise
checking is still not possible.  This happens because of the following means\
of escape.  The user enters information and leaves the field, the closeField
is trapped and the contents checked.  They are discovered in error and
the user is notified and the field reopenned in script.  Now, if at this
point the user ignores the message to change and moves on to another field,
no new closeField is sent because the field (already in error) has not
be changed.

    The only way around this problem is to blank the field in script so
that the user is forced to enter new information.  But this is very unMac-
like.  The proper Mac-like way is to leave the current contents highlighted
so that the user can see what is there and what is wrong.  Thus, it would
be better if the closeField were sent whenever a field is closed, whether
the contents are changed or not.  This will make setting a "dirty" flag
somewhat more difficult, but the entire process will then be controllable
by the hypercard composer.



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