Mouse messages while down

[J. Landman Gay]

Sarah Reichelt wrote:
> Thanks Jim & Joe,
> 
> That works OK, using a "repeat while the mouse is down loop" and then
> checking the mouseLoc to see whether it is within the rect of any of
> my 400 buttons each time.
> 
> I thought this sort of polling was not considered a good idea. It
> seems fine on my 2GHz Intel Mac, but I'm not sure how it would go on
> slower machines.
> 
> It still seems odd that I can't get the data I need without having to do 
> this.

Yeah, bad idea. At least, according to Mr. Raney. Sometimes it's the 
only way though.

A more politically correct way is to use a mousemove handler. Set a 
script local when the mouse goes down or up. Then use mousemove to check 
whether the variable flag is set. If not, pass mousemove. If so, check 
the mouse location. Off the top of my head:

local sFlag

on mouseDown
  put true into sFlag -- or you could use the button ID as the flag
end mouseDown

on mouseUp
  put false into sFlag
end mouseUp

on mouseMove x,y
  if sFlag <> true then pass mouseMove
  repeat with n = 1 to the number of btns
   if x,y is within the rect of btn n then
     put n into tTarget
     exit repeat
   end if
  end repeat
end mouseMove

I use this method in my Klondike game.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com