Re: Dialog and large selection lists

[Thomas Dickey]

On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 03:30:18AM -0800, Peter Hansson wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> I'm trying to use Dialog for some rather large selection lists (in the range 
> 20-100 items).
> User must select one and one only of these items.
> 
> For this purpose I'm using the menu widget.
> 
> 
> Some things I cannot get my head around:
> 
> - How can I control the width of the tag within the box.  It seems to me that
> if Dialog cannot fit the text (i.e.  tag-text + item-text) it starts chopping
> the tag-text.  This seems unnatural to me.  Why not chop the item-text??  The
> tag text is the unique identifier of each line in the box, right?

I think you're referring to this (it chops both):

    /* If the name+text is wider than the list is allowed, then truncate
     * one or both of them.  If the name is no wider than 1/4 of the list,
     * leave it intact.
     */
    use_width = (list_width - 6);
    if (text_width >= 0
        && name_width >= 0
        && use_width > 0
        && text_width + name_width > use_width) {
        int need = (int) (0.25 * use_width);
        if (name_width > need) {
            int want = (int) (use_width * ((double) name_width) /
                              (text_width + name_width));
            name_width = (want > need) ? want : need;
        }
        text_width = use_width - name_width;
    }
 
> - Can I turn off the hotkey feature??  My selections have many, many choices
> that all start with the same letter, so the hotkey feature will be confusing
> to the user.

not currently (sounds like a feature request)
 
> - I need to add some kind of table heading.  This is not a problem per se as
> I can use the menu text for that.  But how do I align it with the contents of
> the menu box itself.  I don't have control over the actual placement of the
> text inside the menu box and hence I cannot align the text a the top (the
> header) with what is inside.

again, a feature request ;-)

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <address@hidden>
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

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