Replacing Answer/Ask

[Wilhelm Sanke]

On: Tue, 12 Apr 2005,: Derek Bump <webmaster at dreamscapesoftware.com> wrote:

> Are the Answer and Ask dialogs built directly into Revolution?
>
> Would it be possible to replace those dialogs with custom ones?
>
> For the last few months I've been slowly working on replacements for
> them in a library, but now I'm finding out that a library is more
> trouble than it's worth.
>
> In the end, I'd like to replace both dialogs with my own custom
> versions.  My reasons for this:  As much fun as custom dialogs are, each
> dialog adds size to my standalone.  If I can find a way to reduce those
> sizes, while still keeping dialogs that look standard (no offense Rev)
> then I've got what I want.
>
>
> Derek Bump
> Dreamscape Software
> _______________________________________________


and Eric Chatonet <eric.chatonet at sosmartsoftware.com> had answered:

> Hi Derek,
>
> Answer and Ask dialogs are substacks of the Home stack (License.rev
> file)
> (snip)



Hi Derek,

I don't think custom dialogs are an extra burden (concerning the size of 
stacks) as in most cases they can be rather small. One of my custom 
dialogs, which I use frequently as a placeable "search dialog", has only 
4 K.

There are three sample stacks on my website that illustrate 
possibilities of customized dialogs,

(see <http://www.sanke.org/Metamedia>, page "Samples and Tools"):

"Customized Modal Dialogs"

shows examples for customized answer-, ask-, and other dialogs which 
make use of the "dialogdata" property and custom properties to pass 
feedback to the calling stack. The example stack contains six modal 
dialogs as substacks that can be modified.

Stack "Place Dialogs"

contains modified answer- and ask-dialogs that can be placed at any 
location on the screen or relative to a stack. The sample stack contains 
English and German information how to proceed with the new custom 
property "NewLoc" or to modify the dialogs in your own Metacard or 
Revolution IDE. The modified dialogs are contained both as substacks of 
the sample stack and in a separate folder (to be added to other stacks).

"Transparent Dialogs"

 - like above - consists of modified "ask" and "answer dialogs", which 
can be used with the "answer" and "ask" commands. They are 
semi-transparent, i.e. they show the underlying area of the screen or 
stack. The textsize is preset to 14 and the textfont to "verdana", a 
font both available on the Mac and Wimdows platforms.


Enjoy if you like,

Wilhelm Sanke