Streaming message box

[CedricCicada]

Greetings!

I have just returned to C++ after a couple of years in the FoxPro and
C# worlds. I am trying to adapt and expand existing code. For
debugging and just plain understanding the code I'm working with, I'd
like to put little message boxes into the code. It seems a pain to
declare a character array, write my message into it, and then call
AfxMessageBox() to dispaly it. It seems to me that it would be easy to
create a stream-based messagebox class that I could use as follows:

StreamMessageBo x << "My value is " << MyValue;

This would pop up a simple message box with a single OK button and my
message. It should be easy to add manipulators to this class to select
icons and use different button sets.

Does such a thing exist? If so, where can I get it?

Thanks very much!

RobR

[mlimber]

CedricCic...@gm ail.com wrote:

Greetings!

I have just returned to C++ after a couple of years in the FoxPro and
C# worlds. I am trying to adapt and expand existing code. For
debugging and just plain understanding the code I'm working with, I'd
like to put little message boxes into the code. It seems a pain to
declare a character array, write my message into it, and then call
AfxMessageBox() to dispaly it. It seems to me that it would be easy to
create a stream-based messagebox class that I could use as follows:

StreamMessageBo x << "My value is " << MyValue;

This would pop up a simple message box with a single OK button and my
message. It should be easy to add manipulators to this class to select
icons and use different button sets.

Does such a thing exist? If so, where can I get it?

Thanks very much!

RobR

Well, you're talking about a platform-specific library since Standard
C++ doesn't have anything but text/binary I/O. Thus, you should ask in
a Microsoft newsgroup about the existence of such a library. See this
FAQ for some possibilities:

http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lit...t.html#faq-5.9

But, you're right that it shouldn't be too hard to add that. I suspect
you'll need to always have a manipulator at the end, however, to
indicate that you're done appending the message and that it should now
be displayed.

Cheers! --M

[Victor Bazarov]

Ce**********@gm ail.com wrote:

I have just returned to C++ after a couple of years in the FoxPro and
C# worlds. I am trying to adapt and expand existing code. For
debugging and just plain understanding the code I'm working with, I'd
like to put little message boxes into the code. It seems a pain to
declare a character array, write my message into it, and then call
AfxMessageBox() to dispaly it. It seems to me that it would be easy
to create a stream-based messagebox class that I could use as follows:

StreamMessageBo x << "My value is " << MyValue;

This would pop up a simple message box with a single OK button and my
message. It should be easy to add manipulators to this class to
select icons and use different button sets.

Does such a thing exist? If so, where can I get it?

If it exists, you could find out about it in a newsgroup where
'AfxMessageBox' is on topic, I am sure. Generally speaking all you
need is to define a class that overloads operator << as a template
and has a special (non-template, say) operator << to "show" itself.
It would be used like this:

StreamMessageBo x << "My value is " << MyValue << show;

or

StreamMessageBo x << "My value is " << MyValue;
StreamMessageBo x.show();

I don't think you want to attempt to make your messagebox show itself
at the end of "full expression". It's just too tricky. Besides, the
behaviour should be the same if you say

StreamMessageBo x << "My value is "; StreamMessageBo x << MyValue;

don't you think? That's why you need not only the operator << but
also the 'show' thingie.

V
--
Please remove capital 'A's when replying by e-mail
I do not respond to top-posted replies, please don't ask

[CedricCicada]

Thank you very much for your replies. I appreciate your thoughts and I
also appreciate you pointing out that I was asking an MS-specific
question and therefore should have been on an MS-specific list. I will
repost to one.

RobR