Re: [lmi] product editor patch

[Greg Chicares]

On 2008-02-25 21:14Z, Vaclav Slavik wrote:
> Greg Chicares wrote:
>> As for wxTextCtrl, we certainly don't want this to be editable in
>> fact, so I was thinking that a read-only wxTextCtrl would be just
>> perfect. Do you see a concrete or user-observable disadvantage?
> 
> Only that it _looks_ editable even though it isn't and so can be 
> confusing for new users. It only accepts keyboard focus and so stays 
> in the way of heavy keyboard users (we should be able to override 
> this, though). Another alternative would be disabled text control -- 
> that one is clearly not editable, but it's also less readable.

Thanks for the explanation. I think msw applications that use
this technique tend to make the text control borderless (so that
it looks like a static control), and to forbid all keyboard
interaction (the only way to copy it is by highlighting text with
a mouse).

It's been a long time since I worked directly with the msw API,
but AFAICT from glancing quickly at some google results, the
usual method is either to make it disabled and then change the
color so that it doesn't appear "grayed", or to make it read-only
and then inhibit keyboard navigation. I guess only the latter
makes the contents copyable.

I'll leave it to your judgment whether wx would benefit from,
say, adding a "static-like" wxTE_* style or two to support ideas
like these in a platform-independent way.

BTW, I just remembered another place where lmi could benefit from
a copyable read-only text control. The input dialog notebook has
a field at the bottom, just to the left of the OK etc. buttons,
for displaying diagnostics arising from invalid input. To see an
example, do "File | New | Illustration", move to the "Inforce"
tab, and then type "abc" in the "General account value" field.
Hit Enter, and you see a "'abc' is ill formed." diagnostic. It
would be nice if that were copyable (with the mouse).