ࡱ                >  	                                                         
                     R o o t   E n t r y                                                   	           F            `ldϻ	          W o r d D o c u m e n t                                                                                           C o m p O b j                                                                                           ^                                           
 "\醂    憂    o t   E n t r y                                          3  4  5  6  B  G  L                      :  ;  <  =  C  D  E                          ÿ{wsokga
U] ^c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  U] c  ] c  U] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  ] c  
U] ^c   &  %  &  '  ?  M              +	  9	  	  	  	  	
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            {  |  }                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            8      K        @  Normal     a	                   " A@ " Default Paragraph Font                                                                                              @                    
   	           F   Microsoft Word 6.0 Document 
   MSWordDoc     9q            ࡱ                >  	  ࡱ                >  	                                       really bothering me.  I don't want to have to use anything but what can be determined at run-time.  I also want to be able to support any other component that supports tabbing.  

Can anyone think of a way out of this corner that I've painted myself into????


Anyhow, play with this silly thing at your own risk....It seems to work ok, but the limitations will drive you crazy.


Larry A. Brodahl
CompuServe  76652,712

 
 	                 ܥe #	                                                                        ,  l   ,  l                                                                                   
   
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             F   (                                                                                                                    T                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              F      MS Sans Serif     Symbol      System      Times New Roman TTABMOVE - The worlds' most useless component.  By Larry A. Brodahl


DESCRIPTION:  The TTabMove component is a non-visual Delphi (2.0) component that allows you or your users to resequence the tab order of a form on the fly.  i.e.: at run time, rather than at design time.  It does this by automatically creating another form, that lists the names of every 'tab-able' component on your associated screen.  The user can then:
	a.) move the item (using the forms' buttons) to the "Don't TAB" list and
		back again.
	b.) move the order (up and down, using drag and drop) of the "tabbable"
		items.
	c.) Save the list of "tab-able" components, which re-sequences the tab order. The
		"saved" list can then be used at will to change the tabbing order of the
		form.

WORTHLESS-NESS: This item is kinda useless.  You see, the component has to determine dynamically, which components on the screen are "tab-able".  This means, that the only information available to the "tab list" is the information normally used by the programmer.  i.e.: Component name, hint, height, enabled, etc.

This information is not user friendly.  So, it won't mean a thing to your users.  Face it, you may have a button labeled "Print reports", but the component name is "Btn1".  Using TTABMOVE  will show the users "Btn1".  So, unless you have a cross-reference of names-to-components, the users won't have a clue as to what's going on.  (Like they do anyway!  Ha!)

This component also has a few design flaws, that I see no way out of.  

#1:  I use the component property of TABSTOP to determine which items you allowed at design time to be "tab-able".  This way, a user can't decide to start tabbing to an item you don't want them to.  

Well, if you move an item to the "don't tab" list, and save this list 2 or 3 times, the component will never show up on the list again!!!!!  I could rebuild the 'tab' list every time the form is invoked, and then use the "Do tab" list to build the tab sequence, but this is a rather ugly solution.

#2: I have no meaningful data to display to the users.  I can't even use the caption property, since # 1, not all tab-able components have captions, and #2, this means I would REQUIRE all components to have a caption.  Like any self-respecting programmer would let me get away with that!!!!!!!!!


note of interest------------>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I use a standard text file to save/restore the tab/don't tab lists.  I did this deliberately, since if anyone is crazy enough to use this, and the user screws things up [which they will!], I wanted a file that the user could easily delete or edit with just about any editing tool.

ps:  Deleting the file will restore all of the design-time tabbing......


HELP -

   I started writing this component for the fun of it, but the design limitation of using the component name is really bothering me.  I don't want to have to use anything but what can be determined at run-time.  I also want to be able to support any other component that supports tabbing.  

Can anyone think of a way out of this corner that I've painted myself into????


Anyhow, play with this silly thing at your own risk....It seems to work ok, but the limitations will drive you crazy.


Larry A. Brodahl
CompuServe  76652,712

 
                                                                                         