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I'm trying to implement a custom widget in wxWidgets (version 2.8.12), essentially a modified single line wxTextCtrl. It takes a text input that consists of two sets of 8-digit hexadecimal numbers separated by a space, and I want the control to automatically handle that space. For example, if the user types 1-8 in twice (no press of the space bar required), the resulting contents of the text control should be:

12345678 12345678

If the user were to then place their cursor after the first '3' and backspace three times, that space should automatically adjust as they edit, resulting in:

45678123 45678

Essentially, the space should be completely transparent to the user.

I have this, for the most part, done. The code is a bit long to paste here, so here is a Gist:
https://gist.github.com/036c1a90f77521a8653c

There is one bug, however, that I can't seem to fix- upon typing the ninth digit, it automatically inserts the space, but the cursor ends up right after the space, right behind the ninth digit.

12345678 |1

All attempts to use wxTextCtrl::SetInsertionPoint() and wxTextCtrl::SetInsertionPointEnd() have shown no success, so I've come here as a last resort in hopes that somebody can point out what I'm doing wrong.

To assist in testing this widget out, I've prepared a very quick and dirty application containing the widget:
https://gist.github.com/cf3219eb47e2bfe85b38
Or click here to download the code as a tarball:
https://gist.github.com/gists/cf3219eb47e2bfe85b38/download

Just run make to clean, compile, and run the code all at once. You'll need wxWidgets 2.8.12 installed to compile, of course.

Mostly every other facet of this widget works exactly as I want it to- it is just this one very large problem that is keeping this from working. There is, however, one tiny bug that I'm curious about, and though it isn't a major concern I'd like to fix it some time.

The space will be automatically handled even upon deleting characters, even if you delete a selection- however, if the selection that you delete ends on the ninth digit, it won't reformat the contents of the control after the deletion.

If anybody can pinpoint the cause of that it would be appreciated, but the insertion point problem is obviously my main concern.

Thanks to anybody willing to help, I tried to provide as much information and explanation as possible- if I missed anything, please let me know.

vinnydiehl
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1 Answers1

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Generally speaking, it's difficult to modify the input handling of a native control as it behaves differently under different platforms. I don't know if you tested your code under all (or at least more than one) of them already but I fully expect you to find more problems.

Instead of trying to do it on your own, I'd recommend that you look at wxMaskedEdit proposed for the addition to wxWidgets itself. It's not final yet but there is a preliminary version already and I think it could work with 2.8 too (although it's developed with 2.9, of course).

VZ.
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