[wx-dev] ellipsize in wxStaticText (Re: wxStaticText GTK woes)

[Vadim Zeitlin]

On Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:23:02 +0100 Francesco Montorsi <f18m_cpp217828 at yahoo.it> wrote:

FM> I've added ellipsize support for the "generic" port and wxGTK.

 Thanks!

FM> Currently however I'm not using a wxST_ELLIPSIZE style but rather the following 
FM> ones:
FM> 
FM> #define wxST_DOTS_START       0x0004
FM> #define wxST_DOTS_MIDDLE      0x0008
FM> #define wxST_DOTS_END         0x0010

 Do we really need all 3, especially the first one? Is it ever useful?

FM> this is because I've found the (undocumented) wxST_DOTS_MIDDLE and wxST_DOTS_END 
FM> were already there and used only by the Mac port.
FM> I'd say they should be renamed to wxST_ELLIPSIZE_START/MIDDLE/END...

 In my experience non native English speakers tend to understand better
the meaning of "dots" than "ellipsis" so while I personally prefer
"ellipsis", maybe "dots" has the merit of being more clear to more people.
I could live with either...

FM> Also I've found that win32 supports natively ellipsization:
FM> 
FM> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/commctls/staticcontrols/staticcontrolreference/staticcontrolstyles.asp
FM> 
FM> MSDN says that the
FM> 
FM> SS_ENDELLIPSIS
FM> SS_PATHELLIPSIS
FM> SS_WORDELLIPSIS
FM> 
FM> styles are available for Windows NT or later.

 Yes but I never know the difference between END and WORD ones, do you know
it?

FM> Unfortunately I've found that MSDN forgets to say that adding
FM> SS_WORDELLIPSIS or SS_ENDELLIPSIS "disables" the correct newline
FM> handling in static texts: the newlines in the labels are shown as
FM> square.

 Pity. We'd have to switch to owner drawing for multiline labels with this
style then (I don't say this would need to be done immediately, it's just
the only solution that I see).

FM> So I currently add the SS_ENDELLIPSIS style only if the label does not
FM> contain newlines.
 
 Provided that it's documented I think it's a quite acceptable solution.
Most of the time you don't want to use this style with multiline labels
anyhow.


 The only additional question I have is how these styles are going to
affect the best size computation: the min size of a label using such styles
is not really defined, so what will GetBestSize() return? If it just
returns the same thing as now, the ellipsis will never appear...

 Regards,
VZ