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Re: A way to get half-decent tabs in an RB EditField

To: realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com
Subject: Re: A way to get half-decent tabs in an RB EditField
From: "Craig A. Finseth" <fin at finseth dot com>
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:54:36 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com
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References: <20070328164704 dot 3FB85721A76 at mail dot verex dot com> <A933538C-7E21-4168-81C8-AAF53F5911D1 at tolisgroup dot com>
   How about using the regular space character so that you're not tied  
   to a specific font?  You could then measure the cursor's current  
   position in characters, do modulus math to compare it against a  
   tabstop setting and add the appropriate number of spaces (allows user  
   to specify tabstops - I use 2 in HTML, 4 in C, and 8 in Python).   
   Also, since spaces and character widths will totally mess up the  
   layout when using a variable width font, you might consider locking  
   the font choices to fixed width fonts.

1) You need it to be invertible for use with Copy/Paste.

2) There is no correct number of spaces to insert: the whole point is
   that it varies its width on display.  For example, entering text on
   the left of a tab does not move the tab point (until it gets past).

3) Tabs work just fine with variable width fonts and help to remove
   much of the "variableness."

Craig

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From  Wed 28 Mar 2007 13:06:35 -0600
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Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:06:35 -0600
Subject: Re: A way to get half-decent tabs in an RB EditField
From: joe at strout dot net
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On Mar 28, 2007, at 18:05 UTC, Tim Jones wrote:

> How about using the regular space character so that you're not tied  
> to a specific font?

But the whole point of this hack was to get something wider than the
space character (which neither the tab character, nor the space
character, is).

> You could then measure the cursor's current  
> position in characters, do modulus math to compare it against a  
> tabstop setting and add the appropriate number of spaces

I've tried that in the past, but it's *really* hard to do a good
impression of a tab that way.  In particular, when the user is
selecting text with the mouse, they can easily cut your fake tabs into
pieces.

Best,
- Joe

--
Joe Strout -- joe at strout dot net
Verified Express, LLC     "Making the Internet a Better Place"
http://www.verex.com/

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