Name: rlT66838 Date: 07/14/97


I wrote about this problem a month ago, the problem would go away and it didn't.


The problem is that when you select text from a text area
in Windows 95 (under 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, or 1.1.3) the returned
text (or selectionStart or selectionEnd) will be off from
what was selected by the number of rows down the text area
you are!!

That is - if you are on the first row (I'll call it row 0)
the selection and pointers are fine. But if you are on
the second row, the text you get is actually one behind
the text you picked. If you try pasting it you get the
same problem.

This problem DOES NOT occur under Solaris (for Sparc).

I am enclosing sample code that pops up a text area on a
frame (or optionally on a panel in a frame). There is
one menu - edit - with cut, copy, and paste options.

Compile the two pieces of code (CutProblemFrame and
CutProblemTest), then run CutProblemTest.
Type in something like this

12345678901234567890
12345678901234567890
12345678901234567890

then try selecting various places and pasting them in.

You'll quickly see the phenomenon. I have print
statements in the code to help follow the actual cutting
and pasting.

I suspect this is related to the CRLF difference between
Solaris and Windows, and I might be able to
I wrote about this problem a month ago, and got
blown off by some response asking for code. Well
I waited through two more releases of JDK (1.1.2 and
1.1.3) to see if the problem would go away and it didn't.

So here we go again - Except this time I've lobotomized
my code so that a child could follow it and see the malfunction.



1st - the test routine

public class CutProblemTest
{
   public static void main(String argv[])
   {
 System.out.println("About to call CutProblemFrame");
     CutProblemFrame myFrame = new CutProblemFrame();
 System.out.println("Back from call CutProblemFrame");
   }
}

2nd - the problem frame

import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.datatransfer.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.text.*;
import java.util.*;

public class CutProblemFrame extends Frame implements
            ActionListener
{
  private Clipboard clipboard;
  private TextArea msgarea = new TextArea(16,40);

/***************************************
        Variables for menus
***************************************/
  private MenuBar menubar;

// Top level menus
   private Menu editmenu;
// Items in editmenu
   private MenuItem cutitem;
   private MenuItem copyitem;
   private MenuItem pasteitem;

// Constructor
   public CutProblemFrame ()
   {
// Call the constructor
    super();
// Set up the graphical interface
    initUI();
   }

// Do the graphical initializations
  private void initUI()
  {
        setTitle ("Compose");
// Get the clipboard
        clipboard = new Clipboard("Compose Clip");

// Set up the menus
    menubar = new MenuBar();
    setMenuBar(menubar);
    makeEditMenu();

/**********************************
Either put it on a panel or just drop it on the frame
by coommenting out the appropriate section - no
difference in function only in appearance (as expected).
The cut, copy, paste all malfunction!
***********************************/

// Either comment these three lines out
/*
    Panel theTop = new Panel();
    theTop.add(msgarea);
    add("North",theTop);
*/
// Or comment this one out
    add ("Center",msgarea);

// And now display this thing
     this.setLocation(50, 100);
     setSize(660, 660);
     setVisible(true);
 }

/*******************************
        Create the edit menu
*******************************/
 private void makeEditMenu() {
    editmenu = new Menu(" Edit ");
    menubar.add(editmenu);
    cutitem = myAddMenuItem(editmenu, " Cut ", 'x');
    copyitem = myAddMenuItem(editmenu, " Copy ", 'c');
    pasteitem = myAddMenuItem(editmenu, " Paste ", 'v');
  }

//------- myAddMenuItem
  private MenuItem myAddMenuItem(Menu menu,String label, int key)
  {
    MenuItem mi;
    mi = new MenuItem(label);
    mi.addActionListener(this);

// short cut?
    if (key > 0) {
      if ((key < (int)'A') || (key > (int)'Z'))
        mi.setShortcut(new MenuShortcut(key));
      else
        mi.setShortcut(new MenuShortcut(key, true));
    }
    menu.add(mi);
    return mi;
  }
  
/**********************************************
actionPerformed is the routine which handles
the buttons and lists in JDK 1.1.
**********************************************/
  public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent evt)
  {
   Object source = evt.getSource();
  
   int i,numparts;
   String ctype;
// Check for cut
    if (source == cutitem)
    {
      doCut();
    }
// Check for copy
    else if (source == copyitem)
    {
      doCopy();
    }
// Check for paste
    else if (source == pasteitem)
    {
      doPaste();
    }
   else
   {
   }
 }

/**********************************
* This routine does the cut
**********************************/
   private void doCut()
   {
        int start = msgarea.getSelectionStart();
        int end = msgarea.getSelectionEnd();
System.out.println("The start was ->"+start+" and the end was ->"+end);
        String theString = msgarea.getSelectedText();
System.out.println("The selected text was->"+theString);
        StringSelection theStringSelection = new StringSelection(theString);
      clipboard.setContents(theStringSelection, theStringSelection);
        if(start>-1 && end > -1)
        {
           msgarea.replaceRange("",start,end);
        }
   }
        
/**********************************
* This routine does the copy
**********************************/
   private void doCopy()
   {
        String theString = msgarea.getSelectedText();
System.out.println("The selected text was->"+theString);
        StringSelection theStringSelection = new StringSelection(theString);
      clipboard.setContents(theStringSelection, theStringSelection);
   }
        
/**********************************
* This routine does the paste
**********************************/
   private void doPaste()
   {
        Transferable clipData = clipboard.getContents(this);
        String theText;
        try{
           theText = (String) clipData.getTransferData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
        }
        catch(Exception e){
           return;
        }
        int insertPos = msgarea.getCaretPosition();
System.out.println("The insert pos is ->"+insertPos);
System.out.println("The text to be inserted is ->"+theText);
        msgarea.insert(theText,insertPos);
   }
        
} /* end of CutProblemFrame class */

======================================================================

roger.lewis@Eng 1997-08-07

TextArea.getSelectedText returns incorrect text

To reproduce:
Select text from top TextArea from second or third line.
Press button to copy text to bottom TextArea.
The text inserted in the bottom TextArea is
not the text that was selected.

******* start code ****************

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class test extends Frame implements ActionListener
{
  TextArea t1,t2;
  Button b;
  public test()
  {
    super("test");
    this.setLayout(new BorderLayout(15,15));

    t1 = new TextArea("This is a test!\nThis is another test!\nOne more test!",5,20);
    this.add("North",t1);
    b = new Button("Test");
    b.setActionCommand("b");
    b.addActionListener(this);
    this.add("Center",b);
    t2 = new TextArea(5,20);
    this.add("South",t2);
    pack();
  }
  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
  {
    String cmd = e.getActionCommand();
    if (cmd.equals("b"))
    {
      String s = t1.getSelectedText();
      t2.setText(s);
    }
  }
  public static void main(String args[])
  {
    test t = new test();
    t.show();
  }
}

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