Revised December 2023; see History
xcall MSBOXX, strow, stcol, endrow, endcol, boxcod {, boxsts, boxclr}
MSBOXX performs text-based box drawing operations, including the ability to save and restore the area underneath the box.
Parameters
strow, stcol, endrow, endcol
specify the coordinates of the upper left and lower right corner of the box to be drawn. It is important to note that if a border is applicable, it is drawn OUTSIDE of the coordinates specified for the box. Thus the interior, or usable part of the box is the same size whether or not the border option is specified.
boxcod
specifies one or more options (added together). These are generally referenced symbolically via the msboxx.bsi include file.
Symbol |
Value |
Meaning |
|---|---|---|
BOX_ERA |
&h00000001 |
Clear interior of the box |
BOX_BDR |
&h00000002 |
Draw border around the box |
BOX_SVA |
&h00000004 |
Save area used by box (to be restored later) |
BOX_RSA |
&h00000008 |
Restore area (previously saved) |
BOX_COF |
&h00000010 |
Leave cursor off on exit |
BOX_REV |
&h00000020 |
(Not supported under A-Shell) |
BOX_FAO |
&h00000040 |
Field attributes on/off (at edge of box) |
BOX_CHK |
&h00000080 |
Return BOXSTS=0 if save/restore supported |
BOX_PSA |
&h00000100 |
Pop saved area without displaying it |
BOX_MAP |
&h00000400 |
(Not supported under A-Shell) |
BOX_PRT |
&h00000800 |
(Not supported under A-Shell) |
BOX_ATR |
&h00001000 |
Save/restore screen context |
BOX_HLI |
&h00002000 |
Draw horizontal line (set strow = endrow) |
BOX_VLI |
&h00004000 |
Draw vertical line (set stcol = endcol) |
BOX_DBL |
&h00008000 |
Draw double line border around box |
BOX_SBU |
&h00010000 |
Scroll box up one line |
BOX_SBD |
&h00020000 |
Scroll box down one line |
BOX_SRF |
&h00040000 |
Draw line with serifs |
BOX_WIN |
&h00080000 |
Display pop-up window; see Comments below |
BOX_PAR |
&h00100000 |
See note in History, below |
Definition File: ashinc:msboxx.def |
||
boxsts
optionally returns a code indicating if the operation succeeded. 0 indicates success.
boxclr
optionally defines the set of colors to use for the parts of the box:
MAP1 BOXCLR
MAP2 BRDR'FG,B,1 ! Border foreground
MAP2 BRDR'BG,B,1 ! Border background
MAP2 IBOX'FG,B,1 ! Interior foreground
MAP2 IBOX'BG,B,1 ! Interior background
Comments
The A-Shell implementation of MSBOXX is nearly equivalent to the original version included with TRACKER. Note that it simplifies box drawing operations, you can perform all of the same operations directly in ASB code using Print Tab Functions.
See Also
| • | ABOX: An alternate box-drawing routine |
| • | MSGBOX: Windows-style message box |
| • | INMEMO: Free-form and menu text inside a box |
History
2023 November, A-Shell 7.0.1751.4: Hot spots created with Tab(-1,162) are now saved and restored in ATE environments as well as pure Windows. Note however that in the ATE environment, the application needs to send a Tab() command with an explicit termination following the Tab(-1,162) in order to get a clean save/restore. Tab(-1,254); (flush) is the simplest way to satisfy the requirement.
2011 April, A-Shell 5.1.1210: New flag BOX_PAR may be used with BOX_WIN and BOX_SVA/BOX_RSA to automatically make the pop-up panel act as the parent to any controls (including TPRINT statements) created until the box is removed (with BOX_RSA+BOX_WIN+BOX_PAR). You could have done this yourself using MX_AUTOPARENT except that MSBOXX does not return an identifier for the panel; the BOX_PAR option overcomes that issue and automatically issues the necessary MX_AUTOPARENT calls.
Note that with BOX_WIN, the box/panel is a GUI control, and thus you cannot output plain text on top of it; use TPRINT, DPRINT, AUI_CONTROL, and other GUI control generation statements instead of PRINT. Furthermore, with BOX_PAR, since the panel acts like a parent, the cursor position of controls and text to be placed on it must be adjusted to be relative to the box/panel rather than the screen. (The overall effect is similar to using a regular dialog box.)
2011 April, 5.1.1210: BOX_SVA with the BOX_WIN option now saves underlying controls, as well as text, and BOX_RSA+BOX_WIN will restore them. This allows BOX_WIN panels to effectively overlay areas containing either plain text or GUI controls, or both.♥B
