ParamText

Assign text to static item ^n text variables

#include <Dialogs.h> Dialog Manager

void ParamText(param0, param1, param2, param3 );

Str255 param0 ; address of Pascal string to replace ^0

Str255 param1 ; address of Pascal string to replace ^1

Str255 param2 ; address of Pascal string to replace ^2

Str255 param3 ; address of Pascal string to replace ^3

ParamText sets the values to be used when a dialog or alert contains a static

text item that includes a "text replacement variable" ^0, ^1, ^2, or ^3. It

should be called before displaying a dialog or alert containing such variables.

param0 through . . .

param3 are the addresses of pascal-style length-prefixed strings. A value

of "\p" or NIL can be used for strings that won't be needed.

Notes: ParamText, and the ability of the Dialog Manager to use ^n replacement

text variables, lets you easily change the text of statText items in a dialog

or alert. This is much simpler than creating a variety of dialog resources

or manually tracking down and changing dialog text via GetDItem and

For instance, if you have a statText item that is defined as:

Save "^0" before quitting?

and the variable curFileName contains the pascal string "\pMyDocument",

then after using:

ParamText( curFileName, 0,0,0 );

the dialog will display:

Save "MyDocument" before quitting?

Note: The circumflex ( ^) is the literal character ASCII 94 (0x5E). The

string " ^0" is two characters (0x5E and 0x30); it is NOT to be read as

" control-zero" or " control-oh".

One useful technique is to create an alert with a statText item containing

just the text ^0^1^2^3". This lets you use ParamText to define the

entire text displayed by the alert-on the fly.

The InitDialogs function sets these values to empty strings. Four

handles beginning at global address DAStrings (at 0xAA0) are handles to the

current text of the four ^n variables.

This technique cannot be used to change the titles of controls. Use

GetDItem to get a ControlHandle and SetCTitle to change the title text.

Since static text can be displayed in a font other than Chicago (see

SetDAFont), you can use ^n variables in positions where the control

titles would go.

Each of the parameter strings may be up to 255 characters and the Dialog

Manager performs wordwrap (àla TextEdit) to fit the expanded text of a

static item into its enclosing rectangle. CRs (0x0D) in the text force a

newline.

Referenced by (29):