Tech Arsenal 1/Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO/tek-02/tpmemo.zip/ENTRY.TXT

Text File | 1993-01-04 | 18KB | 501 lines

; Set width of help screen
!WIDTH 66
;
; The first seventeen topics pertain to the data entry fields
;
!TOPIC  1 Name field
This field has no special characteristics of its own. Like the
other fields in the program, however, the field is cleared
if the first character pressed is an ASCII character, an option
activated with SetClearFirstChar(On). No special validation of
input is performed on this field.
;
!TOPIC  2 Address field
This field has only one special characteristic: it is marked as a
required field, meaning that it cannot be left blank. The screen
editor will check its contents both when leaving the field and
when exiting from the screen editor (unless <Esc> has been pressed,
a user-defined exit command has been issued, or the data entry
screen is being exited temporarily in order to process a nested
entry screen such as the one associated with the 6Phones field).
;
!TOPIC  3 City field
This field has only one special characteristic: inserting new text
cannot cause existing text to be pushed off the end of the field,
an option selected with SetInsertPushes(Off). No special
validation of input is performed on this field.
;
!TOPIC  4 State field
In terms of field editing options, this field has no special
characteristics, but it differs from the other fields in that a
user-defined exit key, <F2>, allows selection of the abbreviated
state name from a 
pick list
 created with 
TPPICK
.
;                 ^-- this attribute used for general purpose emphasis

The contents of the field are validated in two ways. First, the
picture mask, 'AA', insures that only upper-case alphabetic
characters may be entered by the user. Second, a special
validation routine, ValidateNotPartial, is used to insure that
the field is either completely empty or completely full.
;
!TOPIC  5 Zip code field
This field receives special treatment to insure that it is either
entirely blank or else contains a 5- or 9-digit number. Validation
is performed in two ways. First, the picture mask, '99999-9999',
insures that only digits (0-9) or spaces may be entered. Second, a
user-written validation routine, ValidateZip, insures that none
of the first five slots is empty unless the whole field is empty,
and that none of the last four slots is empty unless all four are
empty. If you examine 
ENTRY.PAS
, you'll see that ValidateZip
is a simple routine that relies on the built-in
ValidateSubfields procedure.
;                 ^--- this attribute used for field/procedure/unit names
;
!TOPIC  6 Phones field
This field is unusual in that it has a 
nested data entry screen

associated with it. If you move the cursor to this field and press
<Enter>, the demo program pops up a window containing a secondary
edit screen with two fields on it, 16Work phone and 17Home
phone. This field was added to the main entry screen using the
AddNestedField procedure.
;
!TOPIC  7 Gender field
;                      v--- ^D signals link to topic 23
This is one of the two 23multiple choice fields in the program,
and it is the more typical of the two. The person's gender is
stored in a variable of an enumerated type--GenderType =
(Unknown, Male, Female)--and the user simply presses keys until
the desired choice is displayed. To see how this is done, examine
the IncChoice routine in 
ENTRY.PAS
.
;
!TOPIC  8 Marital status field
This field is a standard 
yes/no field
, added by calling
AddYesNoField, and as such it requires no special validation.
The only valid entries are `Y' or `N', and input is automatically
converted to upper case.
;
!TOPIC  9 Date of birth field
This is a Date field and can hold any valid date between January
1, 1900 and December 31, 2078. Validation is done in two ways.
First, the picture mask, usually 'mm/dd/yy', insures that only
digits (0-9) or spaces may be entered. Second, a built-in
validation routine insures that (almost) any date entered is a
legal one. The only illegal date that may be entered,
'00/00/00', is allowed because the lower and upper bounds for
the field are both 0. To force the entry of a legal date, the
constants MinDate and MaxDate (declared in 
TPDATE
) could
be used instead. Notice that the 10Age field is calculated
based on the date of birth.
;
!TOPIC 10 Age field
This is a 
protected field
, meaning that its value cannot be
altered directly by the user. It is also a 
calculated field
,
meaning that its value is determined automatically based on that
of another field, in this case the 9Date of birth field. To
see how this is done, examine the UpdateHandler routine in

ENTRY.PAS
. Like the other protected fields in 
ENTRY
, the Age
field is displayed in a different color than unprotected fields.
;
!TOPIC 11 Hourly wage field
This is the only 
numeric field
 in the program, at least by the
definition used in 
TPENTRY
. That is, it is the only field that
uses the 22numeric editor, which is requested by calling
SetNumeric(On). Although the most noticeable difference between
it and most of the other fields is that text is inserted from
right to left in calculator fashion, the command set for the
numeric editor is also restricted.

Notice, too, that the value in this field is used, along with
13Hours worked per week, to calculate 12Weekly earnings and
14Yearly earnings.
;
!TOPIC 12 Weekly earnings field
This is a 
protected field
, meaning that its value cannot be
altered directly by the user. It is also a 
calculated field
,
meaning that its value is determined automatically based on that
of another field, in this case the 11Hourly wage and 13Hours
worked per week fields. To see how this is done, examine the
UpdateHandler routine in 
ENTRY.PAS
. This field is automatically
right-justified because its picture mask contains a fixed decimal
point, and it is padded with asterisks rather than spaces, an option
selected using SetPadChar('*').
;
!TOPIC 13 Hours worked per week field
This is the second of the two 23multiple choice fields in the
program. Unlike the 7Gender field, however, it does not present
the user with a small set of choices corresponding to an
enumerated type. Rather, it presents a default value that can be
incremented or decremented by pressing the <+> or <-> keys. To
see how this is done, examine the IncChoice routine in

ENTRY.PAS
.

Notice, too, that the value in this field is used, along with
11Hourly wage, to calculate 12Weekly earnings and 14Yearly
earnings.
;
!TOPIC 14 Yearly earnings field
This field is handled in precisely the same manner as the
12Weekly earnings field.
;
!TOPIC 15 Notes field
This is a 
memo field
 created with the routines in TPMEMO. Like
the 6Phones field, the Notes field is displayed by itself in a
popup window when you move the cursor to it and press <Enter>.

The memo field editor provides a variety of commands for editing
text, moving the cursor, reformatting text, and so on. Like
TPENTRY, TPMEMO also provides plenty of hooks to allow the
unit to be customized for a particular application. ENTRY uses
one of these hooks, MemoStatusPtr, to display a customized
status line at the bottom of the editing window, for example.
!PAGE
;   ^----------- force the start of a new screen
The memo field editor offers the following commands:

  <Left>, <CtrlS>
  Cursor left one character.

  <Right>, <CtrlD>
  Cursor right one character.

  <CtrlLeft>, <CtrlA>
  Cursor left one word. A 'word' is a series of non-blank
  characters followed by one or more blanks.
!PAGE
  <CtrlRight>, <CtrlF>
  Cursor right one word.

  <Home>, <CtrlQ><S>
  Cursor to beginning of line.

  <End>, <CtrlQ><D>
  Cursor to end of line.

  <Up>, <CtrlE>
  Cursor up one line.
!PAGE
  <Down>, <CtrlX>
  Cursor down one line.

  <CtrlW>
  Scroll display up one line.

  <CtrlZ>
  Scroll display down one line.

  <PgUp>, <CtrlR>
  Scroll display up one page.
!PAGE
  <PgDn>, <CtrlC>
  Scroll display down one page.

  <CtrlHome>, <CtrlQ><E>
  Move cursor to top of edit window.

  <CtrlEnd>, <CtrlQ><X>
  Move cursor to bottom of edit window.

  <CtrlPgUp>, <CtrlQ><R>
  Move cursor to beginning of file.
!PAGE
  <CtrlPgDn>, <CtrlQ><C>
  Move cursor to end of file.

  <ClickLeft>
  Move the cursor to the position indicated by the mouse.

  <Del>, <CtrlG>
  Delete character at cursor.

  <Bksp>, <CtrlH>, <CtrlBksp>
  Delete character to left of cursor.
!PAGE
  <CtrlY>
  Delete current line.

  <CtrlQ><Y>
  Delete from cursor to end of line.

  <CtrlT>
  Delete word to right of cursor.

  <Enter>, <CtrlM>
  Start a new line.
!PAGE
  <Tab>, <CtrlI>
  Move the cursor to the next tab stop.

  <CtrlP>
  Insert control character. For example, to insert a ^G, you
  would enter <CtrlP><CtrlG>.

  <Ins>
  Toggle insert mode on and off. Fat cursor indicates insert
  mode; thin cursor indicates overtype mode.
!PAGE
  <CtrlO><W>
  Toggle word wrap on and off. When word wrap is on, any
  attempt to insert or append text beyond the right margin
  will cause a new line to be inserted, and the word
  currently being entered to be moved to the new line.

  <CtrlO><I>
  Toggle auto-indent mode. In auto-indent mode, pressing
  <Enter> in insert mode causes the new line to have the same
  indentation as the previous line. Auto-indent also affects
  the way that text is formatted when word wrap occurs.
!PAGE
  <CtrlB>
  Reformat the current paragraph.

  <AltR>
  Reformat the entire file. Use this command with caution.

  <CtrlQ><L>
  Restore original contents of the field and continue editing.

  <Esc>, <CtrlBreak>, <ClickRight>
  Quit editing.
!PAGE
  <F1>, <ClickBoth>
  Help. If a user-written help routine has been established,
  as has been done here, this command invokes that routine.
  Otherwise it does nothing.
;
!TOPIC 16 Work phone field
This field receives special treatment to insure that it is either
entirely blank or else contains a complete phone number, with or
without an area code. Validation is performed in two ways. First,
the picture mask, '[phone]', insures that only digits (0-9)
or spaces may be entered. Second, a user-written validation
routine, ValidatePhone, insures that none of the last seven
slots is empty unless the whole field is empty, and that none of
the first three slots is empty unless all three are empty. If you
examine 
ENTRY.PAS
, you'll see that ValidatePhone is a simple
routine that relies on the built-in ValidateSubfields procedure.
!PAGE
Notice that each sub-field is padded to the right with underscore
characters. This option was selected using SetPadChar('_'). The
underscore characters appear only on screen; the string being
edited is actually padded with spaces.
;
!TOPIC 17 Home phone field
This field is handled in precisely the same manner as the 16Work
phone field.
;
; The remaining topics are more general...
;
!TOPIC 18 Help on Help
;      v----- force this topic to appear first in the index
!INDEX 1
The demo program has a context-sensitive help system developed
using TPHELP. As you've already discovered, this help system is
similar to the one used by Borland in Turbo Pascal: it is
invoked by pressing <F1>, you can select from an index of help
topics by pressing <F1> a second time, and you can page backward
through a list of previously selected topics by pressing
<AltF1>.

The text for a given topic may also contain links to other topics,
which can be selected by moving the cursor to the appropriate word
or phrase and pressing <Enter>.
;
!TOPIC 19 Editing commands
!INDEX 2
The following are the commands available in the 
string editor
,
which is used for editing most of the fields in the demo program.
Note that several of these commands are either not available or
behave slightly differently in the 22numeric editor and
23multiple choice editor.

  <Left>, <CtrlS>
  Cursor left one character.

  <Right>, <CtrlD>
  Cursor right one character.

  <CtrlLeft>, <CtrlA>
  Cursor left one word. A 'word' is a series of non-blank
  characters followed by one or more blanks.

  <CtrlRight>, <CtrlF>
  Cursor right one word.

  <Home>, <CtrlQ><S>
  Cursor to beginning of field.

  <End>, <CtrlQ><D>
  Cursor to end of field.

  <Del>, <CtrlG>
  Delete character at cursor.

  <Bksp>, <CtrlH>, <CtrlBksp>
  Delete character to left of cursor.

  <CtrlY>
  Clear entire field.

  <CtrlEnd>, <CtrlQ><Y>
  Delete from cursor to end of subfield.

  <CtrlHome>
  Delete from beginning of subfield to cursor.

  <CtrlT>
  Delete word to right of cursor.
!PAGE
  <Ins>
  Toggle insert mode on and off. Fat cursor indicates insert
  mode; thin cursor indicates overtype mode.

  <CtrlP>
  Insert control character. For example, to insert a ^G, you
  would enter <CtrlP><CtrlG>.

  <CtrlR>, <CtrlQ><L>
  Restore original contents of the field and continue editing.

  <F1>
  Help. If a user-written help routine has been established,
  as has been done here, this command invokes that routine.
  Otherwise it does nothing.
;
!TOPIC 20 Field movement commands
!INDEX 3
These commands allow the user to move the cursor from one field
(or subfield) to another:

  <Enter>, <CtrlM>
  Accept contents of field and move to the next one.

  <Tab>, <CtrlI>
  Move cursor to the beginning of the next subfield.

  <ShiftTab>
  Move cursor to the beginning of the previous subfield.
!PAGE
  <Up>, <CtrlE>
  Move cursor to last field above the current one.

  <Down>, <CtrlX>
  Move cursor to last field below the current one.

  <CtrlPgUp>, <CtrlQ><R>
  Move cursor to first field on screen.

  <CtrlPgDn>, <CtrlQ><C>
  Move cursor to last field on screen.
;
!TOPIC 21 Exit commands
!INDEX 4
An 
exit command
 is a command that causes control to pass from the
entry screen manager back to the main program, which must react
to the command. The following are the standard exit commands:

  <CtrlEnter>, <CtrlK><D>, <CtrlK><Q>
  Quit editing. Accepts all changes to the current field.

  <Esc>, <CtrlBreak>
  Abort. Restores the original value of the current field.

  <PgUp>
  Quit editing the current record and start editing the
  previous one. Accepts all changes to the current field.

  <PgDn>
  Quit editing the current record and start editing the
  next one. Accepts all changes to the current field.

The programmer may also define as many as ten additional exit
commands: ESuser0..ESuser9. In the demonstration program,
there are two user-defined exit commands:
!PAGE
  <AltB>
  Toggles the error bell on and off.

  <F2>
  Displays a pick list of abbreviated 4state names for the user
  to choose from.
;
!TOPIC 22 Numeric editor
!INDEX 5
The numeric editor is designed exclusively for entering and
editing numbers. It works just like a calculator, meaning that the
cursor is always positioned at the far right edge of the field and
digits are always inserted at the end, pushing previously entered
digits to the left.

The numeric editor also has one command not found in the 19string
editor or the 23multiple choice editor:

  <->
  Changes the sign of the number being entered.
;
!TOPIC 23 Multiple choice editor
!INDEX 6
This special-purpose editor is designed to edit two kinds of
fields: those associated with enumerated types, and those
associated with numeric values that need to be adjusted in
incremental fashion.

In comparison with the 19string editor, the multiple choice editor
offers a restricted command set. There are no commands for
inserting or deleting text, nor are there any commands for moving
the cursor within the field itself. The only cursor commands
available are those which move the cursor to another field.
!PAGE
The multiple choice editor does, however, offer two commands not
implemented in the 19string editor or the 22numeric editor:

  <+>, <Space>
  Select next choice, or increment value.

  <->
  Select previous choice, or decrement value.

Note that you may alter these key assignments in the same
ways that you would for any other commands.
;
!TOPIC 24 Mouse functions
!INDEX 7
Thanks to the low-level facilities provided by TPMOUSE and several
other units in Turbo Professional, ENTRY is able to provide
extensive mouse support. While editing fields, you can do the
following things using a mouse (if one is installed):

- Move the mouse cursor (shaped like a diamond) to any
  unprotected field on the data entry screen and select it by
  clicking the left mouse button
!LINE
- Move the mouse cursor to the 6Phones field and click the left
  mouse button: the secondary entry screen associated with it
  will be popped up
!LINE
- Move the mouse cursor to the 4State field and click the left
  mouse button once to select it, a second time to pop up the
  pick list of state names
!LINE
- Move the mouse cursor to the 8Marital status field and click
  the left mouse button once to select it, a second time to
  toggle the value
!LINE
- Move the mouse cursor to the 13Hours worked per week or
  7Gender field and click the left mouse button once to select
  the field, a second time to increment the value
!LINE
- Press the right mouse button to simulate pressing the <Esc>
  key
!LINE
- Press both mouse buttons (the left and the right) to bring
  up the help screen for the current field
!LINE
- Press the center mouse button (on three-button mice only) to
  simulate pressing <Enter>

You can also use the mouse when selecting from pick lists,
when using the help system, and when responding to prompts for
a single keypress (in general, clicking the right button does
the same thing as pressing <Esc>, while clicking the left
button does the same thing as pressing <Enter>).