What are all the properties of a field's line?

[bn]

Hi Mono,

In the link below there is a stack from LC Ltd that shows the capabilities of the field after the introduction of LC 5.5.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=34880&hilit=indent& ... fa#p197942
This shows formatting options for text that are not easily understood from the dictionary alone.

Kind regards
Bernd

[stam]

Many thanks once again Bernd, very illustrative.

Also found other useful bits looking at this in the dictionary, such as listStyle (i'd been using htmlText to build lists like this, not sure if listStyle is any better...)

[jacque]

Alright, field's properties it is! I'm terrible at defining basic concepts even though I use them all the time . and the foregroundColor of a button is the text color of its entire label.

I call them attributes, if I call them anything at all.

[Monox18]

Hi Bernd,

I find that stack very interesting. Even more impressive is that so many properties have been available for a long time and I just discovered they exists LOL. The text field is really rich and has so many attributes , which now make me reconsider when to use a Datagrid vs when to use fields. They are both powerful but if I understand correctly, the field is entirely optimized in C language, whereas the Datagrid is a collection of LC objects. So a field will be always more efficient, but a DG allows for more complexity and is better suited for dynamic content. Who knows what might I end up doing with fields now :p

[dunbarx]

Hi.

There is something between a dataGrid and a field. It is a, er, field called the "table field" and can be pulled right out of the tools palette. It is in fact just a field, but with certain properties set to simulate a tab-delimited object similar to a very basic spreadsheet. It also does not have its own API, rather just plain old LC. Setting the tabStops property is its main functional hook.

If you do play with them, note that they have one peculiarity. This can be examined in several threads on the Forum, such as:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=31452&p=170731&hili ... ly#p170741

and tied to Bug 18983

Not sure if this is fixed in the most recent releases. It is an anomaly at least, but can be fixed for reliable use. It is a worthy control and ready-to-go.

Craig

[FourthWorld]

The most complete discussion of LC's paragraph-level formatting options was in the v5.5 Release Notes.

I lobbied the team hard to add those into the User Guide. I just checked. They're not there.

Then I thought I'd at least provide a link to the old v5.5 Release Notes from LC's Downloads page. They're not there.

I give up.

[rkriesel]

The most complete discussion of LC's paragraph-level formatting options was in the v5.5 Release Notes.
...

I found one. Does this link work for you?

Code: Select all

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0XiW6oyFvTHEIHDXQfxDa28Wg#LiveCodeNotes-5_5_3_rc_3

-- Dick

[bn]

Hi Dick,
I extracted from the release notes of LC version 5.5 the part that relates to text handling options as Richard suggested. That is to post them here instead of a link to them. (which is probably due to the upload size limitations of this forum)

This is in addidtion to the already mentioned stack demoing the new field features of 5.5 by LC Ltd.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=34880&hilit=indent& ... fa#p197942

Kind regards
Bernd

[stam]

I extracted from the release notes of LC version 5.5 the part that relates to text handling options as Richard suggested.

Wow thanks Bernd - very impressive not only in terms of features but also in terms of length of release notes! (a good thing...)

[Monox18]

I quickly checked, and can confirm that all properties, at least in bold headers, mentioned in that release are documented in the dictionary entry for field object as suggested by Klaus. Some Unicode functions are now deprecated as LC became native Unicode UTF-16 in I think version 6, which means newer attributes/functions were introduced. So the documentation seems to be up to date. And Bernd's stacks provides very useful examples. That answer the OP question. Thanks !

[FourthWorld]

I quickly checked, and can confirm that all properties, at least in bold headers, mentioned in that release are documented in the dictionary entry for field object...

A significant improvement over the years there were only in the v5.5 Release Notes, but not what I had lobbied for.

The Dictionary is an invaluable reference to learn the details of features you're familiar with, but not the best introduction to features you haven't yet considered.

My lobbying with the docs team was to take the v5.5 Release Notes text and include it in a new section of the User Guide within the discussion of text formatting. If one starts with the User Guide as many onboarding materials reasonably suggest, they'll get a much narrower view of what the field object is capable of than is really the case.

The LC 5.5-and-later field object is perhaps the most powerful field object ever created for any xTalk. I would sing its praises in all relevant docs to help everyone take advantage of all the hard work that went into it.

[jacque]

I agree with Richard. I have saved a copy of the 5.5 release notes because it's the only comprehensive reference ,and I need it frequently. I know what the field object can do but I don't always remember the terminology I need in order to look it up.