From: MM on
On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:53:28 -0800 (PST), Shotgun Thom
<tmoran4511(a)gmail.com> wrote:

>On Feb 22, 9:14�am, MM <kylix...(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> What do others think about replacing textboxes with comboboxes like
>> this?
>
>Actually I think using auto-select comboboxes in this case is fine. I
>might use an up/down tool for numbers instead but I do agree about the
>tiny arrow buttons on that type of control. Annoying.
>
>While many criticize the use of auto-select combo's for a large data
>list let me refer you to font selection options in programs like Word,
>WordPad, Text Tool in MS Paint and dozens of other editors/word
>processors. I have over 250 fonts registered on my computer and all
>these programs use auto-select drop downs for font selection. It is
>handy and fast. If I want to use Tahoma... click in dropdown... type
>"Ta" and bam... good to go. If I'm unsure of the type font I want I
>can scroll through the list to sample the fonts.
>
>Auto-select combobox is a good choice for your program, MM.
>
>Tom

You and me both, Tom. Oh, how refreshing to talk to somebody who
understands!

MM
From: Bob Butler on

"MM" <kylix_is(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:4nrao5h2usu7ebur4kv38a14u1th67rkia(a)4ax.com...
> On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:53:28 -0800 (PST), Shotgun Thom
> <tmoran4511(a)gmail.com> wrote:
<cut>
>>Auto-select combobox is a good choice for your program, MM.
>>
>>Tom
>
> You and me both, Tom. Oh, how refreshing to talk to somebody who
> understands!

You mean who agrees.... many understand.

Auto-select combo is a useful tool but, like anything else, is easy to
overuse. I probably wouldn't use it for numeric entry unless the list of
valid values was very short.

From: Eduardo on

> Stop Press: I've just taken that Linux list, reversed it so that the
> city name precedes the continent, and whacked it into a new Access
> database. I've created a form with a combobox, specifying the 'Cities'
> table. Bingo! Typomatic out of the box.
>
> Type in Lon and it completes with London - Europe. Type in Ne and it
> completes with New York - America. Press Enter and the correct entry
> is confirmed (in the correct letter case, too). Couldn't be simpler.

I really disliked that list. It's not organized in a logic way.
Some are Continent/Country/City, other Continent/Country, other
Continent/City, and other Continent/State/City
From: Karl E. Peterson on
DanS wrote:
>> (sigh...) I am not using a time zone selection combobox, I am using a
>> comboxbox with a simple numeric range of consecutive numbers.
>
> Which I don't understand, unless you targeting 1st graders or something ?

Pretty close! His app is for musicians. <gd&r>

--
..NET: It's About Trust!
http://vfred.mvps.org


From: DanS on
MM <kylix_is(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote in
news:ihrao513afl1n98psuje3vs1ct3pd28dpo(a)4ax.com:

> On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:26:35 -0600, DanS
> <t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t(a)r.o.a.d.r.u.n.n.e.r.c.o.m> wrote:
>
>>MM <kylix_is(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote in
>>news:prjao5t8g9ht9qnhsltatkveqsev5enpma(a)4ax.com:
>>
>>> On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:50:58 -0600, DanS
>>> <t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t(a)r.o.a.d.r.u.n.n.e.r.c.o.m> wrote:
>>>
>>>><SNIP>
>>>>
>>>>>>Poorly designed ? That's not up to me to decide. That is the
>>>>>>official list of accepted timezone names according to whatever
>>>>>>body that controls them.... http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm
>>>>>
>>>>> So I have a numeric dropdown list with the range 0 to 127 yet you
>>>>> are coming at me with "the official list of accepted timezone
>>>>> names", as if the poor design of the latter is automatically
>>>>> assumed for the former.
>>>>
>>>>No, that was to show how bad of an idea a long drop-down box is.
>>>
>>> Ah, so it was as I thought: You took one particular *poor*
>>> implementation and attribute badness to all other implementations.
>>
>>Actually, no. I took the example I had just coded in an application
>>two days ago because I still had the text file sitting right on my
>>desktop, and, the only one I knew was a very long list. (And I'm not
>>going to start searching the internet for a program that had long
>>drop-down lists in it, becasue this thread nowhere near worth that
>>kind of effort.)
>>
>><SNIP>
>>>
>>> Stop Press: I've just taken that Linux list, reversed it so that the
>>> city name precedes the continent, and whacked it into a new Access
>>> database. I've created a form with a combobox, specifying the
>>> 'Cities' table. Bingo! Typomatic out of the box.
>>>
>>> Type in Lon and it completes with London - Europe. Type in Ne and it
>>> completes with New York - America. Press Enter and the correct entry
>>> is confirmed (in the correct letter case, too). Couldn't be simpler.
>>
>>Except that New York - America is not a valid entry.
>
> I didn't create the list, I just used it.
>
>>Now after you select that, you need to format it back to
>>America/New_York before you can use it, which is also code that needs
>>to be debugged, documented, and maintained.
>
> Why does it need to be formatted back?

Because that is what Linux is expecting to see. Those are the defacto
standardized time zone names. It will not accept 'New York - America', it
is expecting 'America/New_York'.

> In any case, I really think
> you're splitting hairs now. This was merely an example, not a study
> into geographical locations.

Yes, it was merely an example....and geographic locations had nothing to
do with this, that just happens to be what the data was.

Let me explain everything then......

It was an example showing a really long drop-down list that you don't
know what the hell your looking for, and how bad that can be, which was
what I was trying to say.....

.......but I wasn't really aware that you were just validating a string a
number in a specified range.....

.......and how you didn't want to write code that needed to be maintained,
debugged, and documented.......although, if you've got to spend more than
2 minutes writing a function to verify that a string is a valid number
between 1 and whatever........

I guess it all comes down to is that I'm just not 'worthy' of your
software.
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