Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!hookup!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!news
From: kit@delphi.bsd.uchicago.edu (Kit Transue)
Subject: Re: Dynamic dataset column headers in VW 2.0
Message-ID: <1995Jan19.165026.19972@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
Organization: University of Chicago -- Academic Information Technologies
References: <D2MLzr.79v@txnews.amd.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 16:50:26 GMT
Lines: 49

In article <D2MLzr.79v@txnews.amd.com> Paul Schaaf <paul.schaaf@amd.com>  
writes:
> How do I change the column headers in a VisualWorks 2.0 dataset?

See p.91 of the VisualWorks' Database Tools Tutorial and Cookbook: "Finish  
the Dataset."  Roughly: click on the dataset to select.  Select the column  
by holding down <control> and clicking on the column.  Edit with the  
properties tool.

This <control>-click comes out of nowhere.  I haven't seen it used for  
anything else in VW.  Really bizarre.

> They provide almost no documantation on datasets, and everything
> about them is nonobvious.  I tried to use images for the labels, 

I have a very low opinion of the VW manuals.  The product is really neat,  
but it has taken several months' really messing around to begin to  
understand how it works.  The manuals' production is amazingly poor--I'd  
bet there's an average of one typo every other page.  In one manual the  
index is off by two pages.  Another's missing all the code samples in one  
chapter.  There is no Object Reference for the database classes.  And so  
on.  I'm sure their tech support would be much happier with me if I had  
had a better time with the manuals.

> as that would request the image via a method, but the request goes
> to the class, not the instance.  I don't want to make this a sole-

Ah, yes.  I've had problems like this as well.  For example, in a menu  
button's Properties settings, one can specify a menu and a value.  The  
value field first attempts to find a method in the class using the  
specified "aspect path."  If this isn't found, it parses the aspect path  
using some parser in the bindings protocols.  Neat.  Unfortunately, the  
Menu field bypasses this second step, resulting in a failure if the field  
specifies an AspectAdaptor that goes outside the class to get the menu.  I  
can't understand why these two access patterns aren't unified.  In fact, I  
don't understand why all the aspects specified in the Properties tool  
aren't parsed the same.

> instance class just to support this feature.  There must be an 
> easier way!?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Paul.Schaaf@AMD.Com
> Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
> <A HREF="http://www.amd.com/">AMD Home Page</A><P>

best of luck!
kit transue
