In the fourth issue of WINDOID, we address more of the many questions and problems people have sent in. Quite a number of people have expressed interest in moving a group of buttons or fields on a card. Sioux Lacy, one of our outstanding HyperCard testers, has given us a way to group buttons and/or fields and move them, in a group, within a card and even onto other cards. Sioux has also written for us an article on Finding multi-word strings in blocks of text. This is one that everyone has asked for.
Phil Wyman, with assistance from Steve All, two more great HyperCard testers, have given us further HyperCard user tips. We really appreciate all of the cards people have sent us with the tips they have found. In this way we can pass on useful tips to many hundreds of HyperCard users.
Paul Foraker, our newest tester, has submitted an AutoLink script. Using this great little shortcut for scripting buttons gives you another productivity tip I am sure you will find interesting.
Steve Maller has done it again! ResCopy is his latest XCMD effort to give us a safe, elegant, and easy way to move resources around in HyperCard. This version is his ╥shipping╙ version and does not have a time bomb in it. You are free to give it away to your HyperCarding friends. This is one stack that people who do not have it will lust for.
Sioux Lacy has given us Groupies 1.3, featured in this issue of WINDOID. This is a must stack for serious HyperCard users. I really appreciate Sioux╒s efforts in bringing us all of these great articles and I am equally sure that you will also.
These two stack are on the Apple HyperCard User Group file server and can be obtained only here in Cupertino. If your favorite bulletin board does not have them, please ask them to have someone upload them.
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AutoLink
by Paul Foraker
Shortly after you get HyperCard installed on your hard disk, you may notice that you are collecting a large number of other people╒s stacks. One way of keeping track of all of them is to stuff them into a folder and put a button for them on a card in your Home stack. Since the original Home card already comes with 19 buttons (and room for about 24), you might want to make another card for holding buttons that take you to your miscellaneous stacks. To avoid having to name and link all the buttons on a new card to the stacks I╒ve collected, I wrote a variation on Danny Goodman╒s script which takes you to a stack even though the button has no script or link.
In this version, a button named ╥new button╙ opens the familiar Standard File dialog and then gets the name of whatever stack you select, changes the name of itself (the button) to the selected stack, then goes there. If the button already has a name (other than ╥new button╙), the script simply goes to the stack. This eliminates the necessity for linking or scripting multiple buttons on a card.
To start from scratch from your Home card, select New Card (CMD-N) and title the new card ╥BackYard╙ (or anything else fun). Type the script below into the script window for the card. (You can skip over typing the comments if you wish.) Then make a new button (you can select an icon for it ╤ I use the generic stack icon). Now hold down the Option key and drag copies of the ╥new button╙ around onto your card. (You can use the Shift key to constrain the movement so they╒re lined up neatly.)
Next, select the Browse tool again and click on one of your new buttons. You╒ll get Standard File asking you ╥where
is the stack you want?╙ Double click on one of the stacks in the list, the new button will get a name change, and
you╒ll be off to the new stack. From there, you can hit the escape (~) key to go right back to the BackYard to AutoLink another button.
--AutoLink script
--variation on Danny Goodman╒s script
--by Paul Foraker
on mouseUp
put the short name of this stack ┬
into thisStack --saving the name for
--use later
get the short name of the target --puts the ╘short╒ name of the
--button you clicked on into ╘it╒
if it is ╥new button╙ then --Oh boy... a new stack has arrived!
push card --saves the BackYard card id
--so we can come back to it
set lockMessages to true --stops any other scripts from running
set lockScreen to true --freezes the screen so we╒re not
╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩╩ --distracted by fast moving cards.
go stack ╥the stack you want?╙ --since there is no stack by that
--name, HyperCard will respond by
--asking you where it is.
--Standard File will open and you
--can select a stack
--or click on Cancel.
get the short name of this stack --here we╒re asking for the
--short name of the ╘new╒ stack
if it is thisStack then --checking for clicking on the Cancel button
pop card --go back to our BackYard card
set lockScreen to false --unlocking the screen display
exit mouseUp --pretend it never happened
end if --end of checking for ╘cancel╒
put it into stackName --putting short name of the stack into
--╒stackName╒
pop card --go back to our BackYard card
set the name of the target to stackName --rename the button
set showName of the target to true --we want to see the name
set the script of the target to empty --make sure there╒s no script in
--the button
set lockScreen to false --unlocking the screen display
set lockMessages to false --now messages can fly around again.
end if --marks the end of the loop
--for a ╘new button.╒
--now, we make sure you didn╒t click on the card or background:
if the short name of target is the short name of this card then exit mouseUp
if the short name of target is the short name of this bkgnd then exit mouseUp
visual iris open to black --just for fun
go STACK it --╘it╒ will be either the new stack or
╤one that╒s already been identified
end mouseUp
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HyperCard Hints
by Phil Wyman
1. There are some interesting properties in HyperTalk that you may not know about:
a. <the version> is a global property which tells you which version of HyperCard you are currently using. This property will become very useful after new versions are released. Since the new versions will have added features that old versions do not understand, stack developers will want to check to see if their stack is currently running on a version of HyperCard that supports those new features.
b. <the name> is another global property. It will tell you that the name of the program is HyperCard. I have not found a way to use this yet, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know.
c. <the diskspace> is a global property which will tell you how many bytes you have left on the drive that the current stack is located on.
2. You can send a message up the heirarchy manually by using the message box. For instance, if you want an OPENSTACK message sent without having to reopen your stack, just type OPENSTACK into the message box and hit return or enter. Any handler, starting with any handler in the current card, which uses OPENSTACK, will receive that message.
Some users are having trouble sending their own messages. In a script, you can just type the name of your message on a line by itself and that message will be sent. If HyperCard does not find a handler with that message, it will throw up a dialog telling you it can╒t understand <message>.
You can also send a message with the <send> command. You can have difficulty with the <send> command if you are trying to send across stacks. Try going to the stack first before using <send>. For example:
send mouseup to button 1┬ of card 1 of stack "Home"
will generate a HyperCard error "expected end of line after send". To get the "mouseup" message to the button, try this:
go to card 1 of stack "Home"
send mouseup to button 1
3. When you are printing your script from the script editor, you do not have to print the whole script. If you want to just print a portion of your script, then select the part you want, then click on the print button. Only your selected text will print.
4. The Tab key moves you between fields on a card in the order of their field number (which can be changed with Bring Closer and Send Farther). But a useful fact for data entry is that Shift-Tab navigates you through fields in reverse order.
5. Choosing a selection with the Selection tool can leave you with a lot of extra white space surrounding your selection. And you may already know that Command-S shrinks a selection rectangle until there is no surrounding white space. What if you want a rectangular selection but no extra white space? Hold down the Command key before selecting with the Selection tool and just that will happen.
6. If you are writing commercial stacks and need to restrict the user-level, you may wish to tell users in your About Box that they can access ╥Full Menus╙ by holding down the Command key before clicking the menu.
7. So you think that those tiny pictures in ╥Recent╙ are neat? You can create them yourself. Copy a card and hold down the Shift key when pasting it back in. You╒ll get an image of the card in miniature (but no actions from buttons or fields to type into).
There are three ways in which the script writer can inquire about the presence of a string in a block of text: FIND, CONTAINS and OFFSET.
These can be used separately or in combination.
The FIND command will highlight the next occurence of the first word of the string if all words in the string are somewhere on the card.
Another option is to test if a particular container (field or variable) CONTAINS the string.
This test will determine an exact match on the entire string.
The function OFFSET will return the character in the container on which the match begins. This can also be used to test IF the field/variable includes the string, since if it does NOT, offset will return 0. Depending on the context of the search, the script writer may opt for one or a combination of these. If the scope of the search is small, and across known fields, CONTAINS or OFFSET can be used. However, if the search is across many fields in a large stack, FIND is a good mechanism to narrow down the number of fields that have to be examined to see if they CONTAIN the string.
To FIND a multi-word string
For example, you would like to find an exact match for the string ╥Hello there╙. You will discover that HyperCard is generous in its find criteria, and also matches the following: ╥Hello world. Is there life out there?╙
This can be problematic if the search is taking place inside a handler, rather than at the control of a human who can continue to hit the return key. The way to circumvent this is to do your match in 2 steps. Supposing you expect the match to be in a background field, try calling a function (until you╒ve searched the entire stack) that does this:
function multiWordFind string
repeat with x = 1 to the number of bkgnd fields
if field x contains string then return "FOUND in field " & x
end repeat
return "NOT FOUND"
end multiWordFind
(If you expected the match to be in a card field, repeat also for the number of card fields.)
on searchStackFor string
set lockScreen to true
find string
if the result is "Not Found" then cleanExit┬
"This stack doesn╒t contain: " & string
--Use the above two lines or use the script
--at the end as an alternate to find offset.
put the id of this card into startedHere
repeat
get multiWordFind (string)
if word 1 of it is "FOUND" then cleanExit it
go next card -- so a subsequent find won╒t find the same
-- card over again
find string
if the id of this card is startedHere then cleanExit┬ "This stack doesn╒t contain: " & string
end repeat
end searchStackFor
on cleanExit prompt
put prompt
set lockScreen to false
exit to HyperCard
end cleanExit
--Use the following as an alternate to determine the offset.
if word 1 of it is "FOUND" then
cleanExit it && "at character position" && offset┬
(string, the value of word 3 to 4 of it)
end if
====================
Grouping Buttons
by Sioux Lacy
Sioux Lacy, one of the outstanding HyperCard testers, has donated this script to provide you, the user, an often-desired script for moving a group of buttons and/or fields around on a card. We are always trying to give you what you ask for, so please let us know if this script is helpful to you. --Editor
Many users have asked about grouping objects. This stack presents a method for assigning to a group any number of buttons or fields, and then being able to move that group as a unit, or copying and pasting that group onto another card. This is accomplished with a series of handlers in a card field, called ╥menuField╙. It looks somewhat like a menu, accepts clicks on any command that it displays, and can be copied and pasted onto another card.
The menuField has a Help option that allows the user to read about each of its options.
Note that the menuField needs to be a card field in order to work properly. And, when a group has been pasted, it will require re-grouping if its group identity is to work in the new context. Also, since it is difficult to select overlapping objects to be members of a group, it is recommended that they be positioned so they don't overlap.
Groupies 1.3 by Sioux Lacy, November 6, 1987. AppleLink comments to me at LACY1, or send mail to Sioux Lacy,
MS 27-AQ, 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014.
