Very Computer

(It is hard for newbies to ask good questions; the same lack of clear
concepts that prevents you from seeing the solution also makes it
hard for you to see what you need to tell to get good help.  With
time, the better you learn to ask questions, the less you need to
ask.  Such is life, perversely. :) But the upside is: The more you
learn to ask good questions, the more you learn from the answers.)

1. Do you want to create a window with multiple input text fields?

Or

2. do you mean you want to show multiple independent dialog windows
    in the terminal window at the same time?

I don't think the last one is practical in terminal windows, since
unlike with graphical user interfaces, there is no way users can
manipulate the windows, minimize them, raise or lower them, etc.

but,

3. You want perhaps to divide the terminal window in multiple framed
    regions, each with its own input text fields and other user
    interface elements.

I will only  look into 1. especially because I never used "dialog"
until you made me aware of it.

On my system, there is a collection of examples of how to use "dialog"
in the directory

   /usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20050306/samples

If you have a different distribution or a different version of dialog,
these files may be a different place, but look for files named
inputmenu3 (use the "locate" program to find it).

Look at the files "wheel" and "inputmenu".

If you try to have multiple input widgets in the same way as the infoboxes
in "wheel", I have found that the program does not display the second one
until you select one of the buttons in the input widgets.

 From the very little I have seen of this tool so far, it seems to be
quite limited.  For example, it looks like the "inputmenu" widgets
invariably have a button labeled "Rename" that you use to edit the
text fields. I have not found a way to change this button label'
to something more appropriate, like "Edit Field".

-Enrique

--

ThinFlash: Linux thin-client on USB key (flash) drive
           http://home.eol.ca/~parkw/thinflash.html
BashDiff: Super Bash shell
          http://freshmeat.net/projects/bashdiff/

       --extra-label string
              Override  the  label used for "Extra" buttons.  Note: for input-
              menu widgets, this defaults to "Rename".

--
Thomas E.*ey
http://www.veryComputer.com/
ftp://invisible-island.net

Do you want to create a window with multiple input text fields?
--> YES, thats what i would like to have!

Examples: /usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20050306/samples
--> I can't find any dialog examples on my pc :( But I'm also a newbie
in working on Linux - so maybe i did'nt look right!? I found only a
dialog readme- and copyright-file!

   #!/bin/bash

   # dialog --form text height width formheight [ label y x item  y  x flen ilen ] ...
   exec 3>&1
   answer=$(
     dialog --form text 30     80    40           name  5 2 item  5 10  40  60 \
                                                  name2 9 2 item2 9 10  40  60 \
   2>&1 1>&3)

   echo "$answer"

(make sure your terminal window is at least 40 lines x 80 columns, or reduce
the numbers above)

Quote:> Examples: /usr/share/doc/dialog-1.0.20050306/samples
> --> I can't find any dialog examples on my pc :( But I'm also a newbie
> in working on Linux - so maybe i did'nt look right!? I found only a
> dialog readme- and copyright-file!

I run Fedora Core 4, a linux distribution, and I installed the "dialog" package,
and then the example files came bundled and installed into the directory shown.

It seems like you can download the original software source from

   http://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html

so I guess the examples will be included in the tar.gz file.

-Enrique

Regards,
   =Adrian=