Getting Contents of Multiple fields in order (Left-to-Right&Down)

[form]

Slight fix to the code:

if x < x1 and abs(x1 - x) >= abs(y1 - y) and d < nxtd and the lastbtn of btn
b < 1 then

Needed to make sure the button wasn't already used in the previous line.

 ~ Chris Innanen
 ~ Nonsanity



On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 2:00 PM, form <form at nonsanity.com> wrote:

> I'm thinking you're going for refrigerator poetry magnets, or something
> like it. To that end, I made something that reads the order similar to the
> way a human would. I haven't tested it a lot, but this was the arrangement I
> used:
>
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/144280/btnorder.png
>
> There are a dozen buttons, named with their btn number. (So button 6 is
> named "6".) Notice that word 8 is at about the same level as word 9, but
> still counts as part of the second row.
>
> Running the following script sets properties on all the buttons (and one on
> the card) that lets you easily walk through them from other scripts. The
> scanrwords command needs to be re-run after moving the buttons, but only
> then.
>
> The last chunk of the scanwords command does a sample walkthrough and
> outputs the buttons in "word" order to the messagebox. Use that code in
> other functions that need to move through the words.
>
>
> on scanwords
>    -- clear the custom properties
>    repeat with a = 1 to the number of btns
>       set the nextbtn of btn a to "0"
>       set the lastbtn of btn a to "0"
>       set the startsline of btn a to "0"
>       set the linenumber of btn a to "0"
>       set the nextline of btn a to "0"
>    end repeat
>
>    repeat with a = 1 to the number of btns
>       put item 1 of the loc of btn a into x
>       put item 2 of the loc of btn a into y
>       put "" into nxtbtn
>       put 100000000 into nxtd
>       repeat with b = 1 to the number of btns
>          if a = b then next repeat
>          put dist( loc of btn a, loc of btn b ) into d
>          put item 1 of the loc of btn b into x1
>          put item 2 of the loc of btn b into y1
>          if x < x1 and abs(x1 - x) >= abs(y1 - y) and d < nxtd then
>             put d into nxtd
>             put b into nxtbtn
>          end if
>       end repeat
>       if nxtbtn is not empty then
>          set the nextbtn of btn a to nxtbtn
>          set the lastbtn of btn nxtbtn to a
>       end if
>    end repeat
>
>    put "" into sortlines
>    repeat with a = 1 to the number of btns
>       if the lastbtn of btn a < 1
>       then put item 2 of the loc of btn a &","& a & return after sortlines
>    end repeat
>    sort lines of sortlines numeric by item 1 of each
>    repeat with a = 1 to the number of lines in sortlines
>       set the startsline of btn (item 2 of line a of sortlines) to a
>    end repeat
>
>    set the firstbtn of this card to item 2 of line 1 of sortlines
>    put 0 into lasttgt
>    repeat with a = 1 to the number of lines in sortlines
>       put item 2 of line a of sortlines into tgt
>       set the linenumber of btn tgt to a
>       if lasttgt > 0 then set the nextline of btn lasttgt to tgt
>       put the short name of btn tgt &"," after output
>       put tgt into lasttgt
>       put the nextbtn of btn tgt into tgt
>       repeat while tgt > 0
>          set the linenumber of btn tgt to a
>          put the short name of btn tgt &"," after output
>          put tgt into lasttgt
>          put the nextbtn of btn tgt into tgt
>       end repeat
>    end repeat
>
>    -- all buttons are now tagged with the information needed to read them
>    -- the first button is in the firstbtn of this card
>    -- buttons that start a new line have a startsline property of the line
> they start
>    -- the line each button is on is in its linenumber property
>    -- the nextbtn and lastbtn point to the next and last button in that
> line, respectively
>    -- buttons at the end of a line have a nextline property with
>    --    the number of the next line's first button
>
>    -- output the "words" in order to the msg box
>    put "" into output
>    put the firstbtn of this card into tgt
>    repeat while tgt > 0
>       put tgt &"," after output
>       get the nextbtn of btn tgt
>       if it < 1 then get the nextline of btn tgt
>       put it into tgt
>    end repeat
>    delete last char of output
>    put output into msg
> end scanwords
>
>
> function dist a, b
>    return sqrt( (item 1 of b - item 1 of a)*(item 1 of b - item 1 of a) +
> (item 2 of b - item 2 of a)*(item 2 of b - item 2 of a) )
> end dist
>
>
>  ~ Chris Innanen
>  ~ Nonsanity
>
>