I am starting to prefer comboboxes than textboxes
in [Visual Basic]
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From: MM on 25 Feb 2010 01:13 On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:26:52 -0300, Eduardo <mm(a)mm.com> wrote: > >> 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 The list was merely an example of how typomatic works. Type in a minimal number of letters and the list will pinpoint matches immediately, thus helping the user find the intended word. Having to the type the whole word into a textbox, without any autocompletion, is not helping the user. Which is why typomatic was invented. MM
From: MM on 25 Feb 2010 01:15 On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:41:14 -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: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. Now that my application has finally become clear to you, do you agree with my use of a combobox with typomatic that obviates any need for extra checking code? MM
From: MM on 25 Feb 2010 01:23 On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:02:45 -0800, "Bob Butler" <noway(a)nospam.ever> wrote: > >"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. I don't think they do. Unfortunately, while Access provides typomatic out of the box, classic VB doesn't. >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. My list is 0 to 127 in six instances. 0 to 3000 in one. The latter works exactly like the former. You have, say, Middle C (MIDI=60) in one event and you edit it and change it to MIDI=70. So you open the edit form, having selected which event to want to change, the software already knows you want to edit specifically the MIDI value and therefore gives focus to the appropriate combobox, therefore you can start typing your new value 70 immediately, the combobox doesn't drop down, the number is confirmed, you press enter, the form's default being the OK button - job done! And no extra checking code needed, since you can only type values that are in the list. MM
From: MM on 25 Feb 2010 01:27 On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:49:50 -0800, Karl E. Peterson <karl(a)exmvps.org> wrote: >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> Yeah, the people who bring sweetness and light to the world! MM
From: Eduardo on 25 Feb 2010 02:20
MM escribi�: > The list was merely an example of how typomatic works. Type in a > minimal number of letters and the list will pinpoint matches > immediately, thus helping the user find the intended word. Having to > the type the whole word into a textbox, without any autocompletion, is > not helping the user. Which is why typomatic was invented. OK |