liberty basic mainwindow

[rwg]

the mainwindow suits my particular program's inputs and outputs.

i've brought this up before but i can't paste text into my input requests.

is there any reason for this ?

LB must be the only software that doesn't allow such inputs.

Metro helped me out with an API fix.

It works, but plays havoc in certain situations.

Hope future versions accommodate this predicament.

[tsh73]

I do not know about reasons (except general "that's probably harder to do then it seems"
but then I needed paste-able input in one of my programs, I used magic word.
That is, normally I use ordinary INPUT, but then I needed more I entered "edit", and program used PROMPT.
With it I could use/edit current value, paste new text, even press ESC and refuse input anything.
(if I just needed clipboard I probably would use magic word "clip" instead)

[rwg]

thanks tsh73 - i've never used PROMPT  !

looks like a way around my predicament.

would still be ideal if i could paste directly into mainwindow.

thanks

[rwg]

sorry to bug you again tsh73

i get the PROMPT solution, but what are the magic words "edit" and "clip" and how do i use them.

cheers rwg

[metro]

Sept 7, 2019 19:52:32 GMT -5 rwg said:

sorry to bug you again tsh73

i get the PROMPT solution, but what are the magic words "edit" and "clip" and how do i use them.

cheers rwg

I'm not psychic, so my guess would be something like this. I'm sure Anatoly will have a more polished version.

It does seem there is a limit to the number of characters the prompt will accept via copy/paste, have not tested but others may know.

[START]
   prompt$="Input data  else Magic words <clip> or <edit>   "
   input ""; prompt$; dar$

   SELECT CASE dar$
       CASE "edit"
       PROMPT "Edit Data  ";responceVar$
       dar$=responceVar$
       CASE "clip"
       PROMPT "Copy from Clip   ";responceVar2$
       dar$=responceVar2$
       CASE else
       print dar$
   END SELECT


   print responceVar$
   print responceVar2$

   input  "Press enter to end or  <R> to re-do  " ; dar2$
   dar2$=UPPER$(dar2$)
   if dar2$="R" goto [START]

end



[rwg]

thanks again Metro - that's working well

[tsh73]

Hello there
Yes metro is right
magic is provided by programmer
Using his clipboard API code I was able to create magic input sub.
It recognizes magic words "edit" and "clip"; if text is entered via PROPMPT or clipboard, it is printed next line after input prompt (after >>) so your mainwin log will still make sense.
The more I look at it the more I like it.
Really, with it I could read from clipboard parts of Excel table and parse it with word$ (lines delimited by CRLF, cells by TAB). Now I wonder if another magic word - medit - for multiline edit will be of use?
Here it is
'magic input - LB version
'tsh73 Sept 2019
'input, string, (you can change it) recognizing two magic words
'   edit - opens PROMPT (with old value$ so you can edit it)
'   clip - pastes from clipboard (using extra window for JB, API for LB)

call magInput "", a$
print "You've entered : >";a$;"<"

'if you enter "edit" it will use old value of a$
call magInput "", a$
print "You've entered : >";a$;"<"

call magInput "input smth", a$
print "You've entered : >";a$;"<"

end

sub magInput prompt$, byRef value$
   if prompt$="" then
       input val2$   'or "?" is suppressed. Remove this line if you don't need that
   else
       input "";prompt$;" "; val2$
   end if
   select case val2$
   case "edit"
       if prompt$="" then prompt$="?"
       prompt "INPUT"+chr$(13)+prompt$;  value$

       print ">> ";value$
   case "clip"
   calldll #user32, "OpenClipboard",h as long, result as long
   calldll #user32, "GetClipboardData",_CF_TEXT as long, txt as long
   if txt<>0 then value$= winstring(txt)
   calldll #user32, "CloseClipboard", result as void
' no-API JB version    
'        open "aux clip window" for text as #clipText
'            #clipText "!paste"
'            #clipText "!contents? value$"
'          close  #clipText
       print ">> (from a clipboard)"
       print ">> ";value$
   case else
       'use as it is
       value$=val2$
   end select
end sub


Some results - first a line (Just a line), next it is edited to (Next part will be Excel from clipboard), next is actually from Excel.
?Just a line
You've entered : >Just a line<
?edit
>> Next part will be Excel from clipboard
You've entered : >Next part will be Excel from clipboard<
input smth clip
>> (from a clipboard)
>> x y
0 0
0,1 0,099833416646828
0,2 0,198669330795061
0,3 0,29552020666134
0,4 0,38941834230865
You've entered : >x y
0 0
0,1 0,099833416646828
0,2 0,198669330795061
0,3 0,29552020666134
0,4 0,38941834230865
<


[rwg]

that's brilliant tsh73.
i've gone for the non api version.
my mainwin log would be better still if your value$ could be printed on the same line of my INPUT.
boiling it down, and using ' as my magic word, I would get say ....

input "Width = ";x$
if x$ <> "'" then goto [Height]
open "a" for text as #a
#a "!paste"
#a "!contents? a$"
close #a
print a$
[Height]
etc ....

can you think of a way i can get my a$ printed on the same line as my input "Width = "

many thanks
rwg

[rwg]

I can see that the LOCATE command positions the cursor in terms of rows and columns,
but i cant find how to find the current position of the cursor.

[tsh73]

I wanted to say that this would involve API calls and I'm bad with API calls
but it seems to be not so hard after all
so here's my code
I tested it only in LB 4.5.1 under Win XP and it does work for me
- after INPUT, it sends key UP to a mainwin, then overwrite line with INPUT ("?" or prompt and entered data) with next PRINT (whatever you want).

I really should be sleeping

'trying to send some keypresses into opened mainwin
'goal is to move caret one line up (discarded - and to the END of line)
'Have very vague idea about API - (use parts of code by Metro) please do it better

'1) get mainwin
CallDLL #user32, "GetActiveWindow",_
hMainwin As uLong    'returns handle of MainWin
print "hMainwin", hMainwin

'2) get a texteditor inside a mainwin
CallDLL #user32, "FindWindowExA",_
   hMainwin As uLong, _
   0 As uLong,_
   "VW32ANSI" as ptr,_
   "" as ptr,_
   hWnd As uLong

print "hWnd", hWnd


i = 0
while 1
   i=i+1
   print
   print "Hello there ";i
   '3) make an input
   input a$
   if a$="q" then end
   'else do API trick
   '4) send control keys to mainwin edit
call SendMessageLong hWnd, _WM_KEYDOWN, _VK_UP, 0
call SendMessageLong hWnd, _WM_KEYUP, _VK_UP, 0
'next two lines will preserve input value (like "edit" or whatever)
'   line will be appended
'without them, input line will be overtyped
'call SendMessageLong hWnd, _WM_KEYDOWN, _VK_END, 0
'call SendMessageLong hWnd, _WM_KEYUP, _VK_END, 0
   '5) do WAIT so control keys got processed
   timer 50, [nxt]
   wait

   [nxt]
       timer 0
   'somehow timer works for me, but SLEEP did not
'CallDLL #kernel32, "Sleep",_
'    50 as long,_
'    ret as void

   'then
   '6) overtype INPUT line. I add "?" so it still resembles INPUT
   'you can add your input prompt
   print "? :You've entered: ";a$    'this supposed to go at line with INPUT, that is, one line up
wend

print "-Over-"
end

Sub SendMessageLong hWnd,msg,wParam,lParam
   CallDLL #user32, "SendMessageA",_
   hWnd As uLong, _
   msg As Long,_
   wParam As Long,_
   lParam As Long,_
   re As Long
'print "re=";re
end sub


[rwg]

thnx again tsh73 - i'll mull over this. hope you get some sleep

[Rod]

Perhaps mainwin is not the correct control? Liberty is designed to place controls like buttons and textboxes in windows. There are lots of easy ways to use those controls once placed. The mainwin was never really intended to be on show except for debugging and testing. So that's why you find it lacking functionality. You should experiment with a few of the contols, your time wont have been wasted.

[tsh73]

Console interface predates GUI. It was with us long ago, no wonder it still useful.