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Review
WASTEfield
Issue: 1.2 (October/November 2002)
Author: Jim Rodovich
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 3,880
Starting Page Number: 8
RBD Number: 1102
Resource File(s): None
Related Link(s): None
Known Limitations: None
Full text of article...
The EditField control is an important part of REALbasic programs of all types. It should come as no surprise then, that different features of the EditField are used in different programs. It should also come as no surprise that many people need certain advanced text-editing features that aren't supported by REALbasic's EditField, and thus find it unsuited for their task.
Recently, the REALbasic EditField was rewritten in order to add support for features such as text alignment and horizontal scrolling. However, this also introduced a variety of quirks and glitches. While some view these new problems as minor and forgivable, others may turn to the more advanced capabilities of a plugin called WASTEfield.
WASTEfield allows REALbasic programmers to take advantage of WASTE, the same text engine used in such applications as AOL Instant Messenger and Outlook Express. Like REALbasic's Editfield, WASTEfield supports multiple fonts, sizes, styles, and colors. It also supports features of the rewritten EditField such as paragraph alignment, and many features that REALbasic's control still does not support. Programs can have images within text fields, as well as struck-out text, indentation, and vertical line spacing. WASTEfield also boasts a nice find function with options such as case sensitivity to locate text within your field.
Getting started with WASTEfield is fairly straightforward. As with REALbasic's EditField, you only have to drag the control to a window before you can type, copy and paste, drag and drop, and scroll. Similarly, WASTEfield uses the same property names to change font and styling information. For the most part, the control's events are familiarly-named, although several events give you additional capability.
Although using WASTEfield can allow you to avoid the misbehaviors of REALbasic's EditField, the plugin is not without its own quirks. For example, if you're using Mac OS X you'll probably notice right off the bat that the Aqua background stripes are visible through the empty portion of the text field. You might also notice that it uses QuickDraw to draw the text, which means that text won't look as smooth as it does in REALbasic's EditField, and that selected text will still appear to have a "halo" like it does in some other programs.
There are some other minor issues, but for the most part things work correctly. Also, WASTEfield seems somewhat quicker and more responsive than REALbasic's EditField.
If you're content with the behavior of REALbasic's EditField, then you probably don't have much of a reason to switch over to WASTEfield. However, if you're irritated by the problems of the EditField, or if you want some additional text editing features, it may be worth giving WASTEfield a try.
In Brief Product WASTEfield Manufacturer Doug Holton Price Free System Requirements Mac OS 8.6 or higher or Mac OS X Contact Info doug.holton-at-mac.com
homepage.mac.com/doug.holton
Pros supports indent, line spacing, and images; avoids some bugs in REALbasic's EditField Cons uses ugly QuickDraw antialiasing in Mac OS X; has its own set of bugs Rating (1.0-5.0): 3.8
End of article.
Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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