Switch from txt to rtf during runtime

[Mike Pliam]

While running a Doc/View SDI, is there any way to switch from text mode to rtf mode during runtime? Search reveals nothing.

Say I have an editor and I want the app to use text, I can set the ctor
as follows.

CEditorDoc::CEditorDoc()
{
	// TODO: add one-time construction code here
	m_bRTF = FALSE;
}

But once I've done that and compiled the app, while it's running, is there a way for the user (or programmer) to change the mode back to RTF? One solution that occurred to me is to use 2 document classes, but that's a hassle.

Thanks.

[VictorN]

... One solution that occurred to me is to use 2 document classes.

Yes!

... but that's a hassle.

Why???
Just move from SDI to MDI with two document classes/types!

[Igor Vartanov]

Well, my understanding is that "document" in document-view model is not exactly the document saved in some format. Instead, it is just a bunch of data to be interpreted and presented by view. Based on this, I don't see any reason for introducing the second "document".

[VictorN]

Well, my understanding is that "document" in document-view model is not exactly the document saved in some format. Instead, it is just a bunch of data to be interpreted and presented by view. Based on this, I don't see any reason for introducing the second "document".

The one reason I see is that some "document" data contained by .rtf file cannot be appropriately saved in a plain .txt file.

[Igor Vartanov]

.rtf file cannot be appropriately saved in a plain .txt file.

Why not? A richer data always can be transformed to its simpler version.

[VictorN]

A richer data always can be transformed to its simpler version.

Sure it can!
But not always can it be transformed from a simpler to its richer version!

[Igor Vartanov]

But not always can it be transformed from a simpler to its richer version!

This is what I was going to ask next. What's the purpose of that switching? In case the original data is RTF-formatted, and the task is just to switch between representations in "view" at runtime, there's no need to take a multi-document approach, as the source data anyway remains unaffected.

[VictorN]

This is what I was going to ask next. What's the purpose of that switching? In case the original data is RTF-formatted, and the task is just to switch between representations in "view" at runtime, there's no need to take a multi-document approach, as the source data anyway remains unaffected.

Agree!

[Mike Pliam]

I have built a math/statistical editor. This editor is an intermediate app that sends calculated results via a dll parser to an output application. I would like the USER to be able to use ANY available text editor to write and save scripts to be later processed by my editor. One advantage of using RTF is that images can be embedded in the script that would further enhance the script with demo diagrams, etc. But that means that the editor would have to load and interpret only RTF files. If one attempts to load a TXT file into an RTF doc, the view is blank. And loading an RTF file in a TXT mode doc loads all the RTF codes which is impossible for the script parser (which was built to parse plain text) to interpret. After playing around with this for some time, I have concluded that being able to detect which file type it is and then display it appropriately would be most useful and avoid User confusion. But I admit that I have not thought carefully through this yet.

It turns out that I have labored over this for a number of years. Here's a post back in 2002 that provides a nice method for converting from TXT <--> RTF. I participated in this thread way back then.

Painless streaming of long rich text from/to CRichEditView Posted by Paul C Maddox on January 18th, 2002
http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/controls...chEditView.htm

[Mike Pliam]

Here's how to implement loading of either text or rtf files using CRichEditView and CRichEditDoc:

Set in the document class ctor: m_bRTF = TRUE; (default) to implement rtf serialization

Override OnOpenDocument.

BOOL CEditorDoc::OnOpenDocument(LPCTSTR lpszPathName)
{
	if (!CRichEditDoc::OnOpenDocument(lpszPathName))
		return FALSE;

	// TODO:  Add your specialized creation code here

	m_csFilepath = lpszPathName;
	ReadChunk(m_csFilepath);

	return TRUE;

}// OnOpenDocument(LPCTSTR lpszPathName)

// check to see if the first 11 file chars are '\\rtf1\\ans'.
// if not, assume text, load the file as text, and set the text to the view
void CEditorDoc::ReadChunk(LPCTSTR lpszFilepath)
{
	char buf[11];
	memset(buf, 0x00, 11);
	ifstream f;
	f.open(lpszFilepath, ios::in | ios::binary);
	if(!f) { TRACE1("Failed to open %s\n", lpszFilepath); return; }
	else { TRACE1("opened %s .\n", lpszFilepath); }

	f.read((char*) buf, (streamsize) 10);

	f.close();

	char buf2[11];
	memset(buf2, 0x00, 11);
	strcpy_s(buf2, 11, "{\\rtf1\\ans");

	_RPT1(0, "buf = : %s\n", buf);
	_RPT1(0, "buf2 =: %s\n", buf2);
	int ncmp = strcmp(buf, buf2);
	_RPT1(0, "\nncmp = %d\n", ncmp);

	if(ncmp == 0) 
	{
		 _RPT0(0, "Its an RTF file.\n");
		 CMainFrame* pMain = (CMainFrame*)AfxGetMainWnd();
		 pMain->m_nTextMode = CMainFrame::nRTF;
		 // update the status bar
		 pMain->UpdateStatusBarTextMode(CMainFrame::nRTF);

	}
	else
	{
		_RPT0(0, "It's probably a text file.\n"); 
		 CMainFrame* pMain = (CMainFrame*)AfxGetMainWnd();
		 pMain->m_nTextMode = CMainFrame::nTXT;
		 // update the status bar
		 pMain->UpdateStatusBarTextMode(CMainFrame::nTXT);

	}

	CEditorView * pView = (CEditorView*)GetView();

	if(ncmp != 0)  // file is text so make it rtf to display
	{
		FILE * pFile;
		long lSize;
		char * buffer;
		size_t result;

		wstring ws = lpszFilepath;
		string s(ws.begin(), ws.end());
		pFile = fopen ( s.c_str(), "rb" );
		if (pFile == NULL) { TRACE0("File error\n"); return; }

		// obtain file size:
		fseek (pFile , 0 , SEEK_END);
		lSize = ftell (pFile);
		rewind (pFile);

		// allocate memory to contain the whole file:
		//wbuffer = (wchar_t*) malloc (sizeof(wchar_t)*lSize+1);
		buffer = new char [ lSize+1 ];
		if (buffer == NULL) { TRACE0("Memory error\n"); return; }
		memset(buffer, 0x00, lSize+1);

		// copy the file into the buffer:
		result = fread (buffer, 1, lSize, pFile);
		if (result != lSize) { TRACE0("Reading error\n"); return; }
	
		// the whole file is now loaded in the memory buffer.
		_RPT1(0, "buffer =: %s\n", buffer);

		// terminate
		fclose (pFile);
		
		string ss = string(buffer);
		wstring wss(ss.begin(), ss.end());
		pView->SetWindowTextW(wss.c_str());
		delete [] buffer;
		buffer = NULL;
	}

}// ReadChunk(LPCTSTR lpszFilepath)

I've also added an StatusBar updater to indicate whether or not the loaded file was txt or rtf.
Saving the file as rtf or text can be a File menu item.