Re: K Frame Dialog Boxes

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from "Richard G. Minutillo"  Tue, 27 May 1997 19:53:02 -0400

Richard, that was a fascinating question that you posed a few days back
concerning K-frames in XyWin. Question of the month -- the year, maybe. I
finally had a chance to install your XWENV.INI file, and inspect the frame
itself this morning. Here's my take, and a fix for the problem:

K-frames are certainly the smartest thing in XPL, so it's reasonable to
expect them to do XPL evaluations while a frame is executing. And they do.
But not in the form you originally shaped. The _lines_ and physical
elements (buttons, boxes, etc) that compose the K-frame are not dynamic.
They do not evaluate. They merely format and display static data, albeit
with a much broader array of variables, special commands, and tools than
anything hitherto available in the XyWrite world. (Really exciting stuff.)
And that's why your frame, in its original shape, steadfastly said "(none)"
when you asked it to display the result of a dynamic evaluation: None had
been performed. The bottom line is that I see no way (and no existing
instance) of a dynamic evaluation performed on a display line. Many lines
in XWDLG.DLG tend to look like they're dynamic, but if you examine closely,
the only dynamic thing going on is data extraction from sub-elements of
VAriables which were already firmly known -- static -- when the K-frame
commenced to execute, or else _tests_ that determine whether the display
should be modified based on the values of already-fixed VAriables (an
example might be <>|°|=="1"|û).

To trigger XPL code and thereby perform a dynamic XPL task, you have to
take an _action_ (i.e. select one of the pushbuttons). I've ZIPped up
your original INI file, together with a crude, broad-brush modification of
your frame, which gets close to the result you want. If you click the default
"Read" button, or if you , it gets the data you want and refreshes the
display. I'm short on time to play with this (I'd love to, but -- promised myself
that I'd quit computing on Friday, and there's so much yet to do); I suspect that
if you fiddle with it, you might come closer.

All the best,


-----------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------
Attachment:
kframe.zip

Description: Binary data