Professional IronPython

Defining Simple Message Boxes
Message boxes (created using the 
MessageBox
class) are extremely useful for displaying short messages 
and getting canned responses. Depending on the buttons you provide, a user could tell you that the 
application should retry an operation or answer yes to simple questions. If you need a little more input, 
you can always rely on an input box (created with the 
InputBox()
method of the 
Interaction
class). 
Of course, an input box is still limited to a single field, but even so, it does extend the kinds of input 
you can receive from the user.
Listing 17-3 demonstrates both the 
MessageBox.Show()
and 
InputBox()
methods. In addition, 
you’ll see how to implement the 
__doc__()
method that most IronPython developers rely upon to 
obtain information about your extension. The section “Considering Developer Help” in Chapter 16 
provides additional information about developer help needs.
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Using Visual Basic.NET for User Interface Support
 
❘
 
369
The content of the 
Interaction
 class is something that some Visual
Basic.NET developers tend to forget. These methods, such as 
Beep()
, are useful 
in IronPython. Visual Basic.NET developers get these features automatically as 
part of the 
Microsoft.VisualBasic
 namespace. Other language developers, 
such as C#, can use these features, too, but will need to add a reference to 
Microsoft.VisualBasic.DLL
 and provide the proper 
using
 statements.
LISTINg 17-3: 
 Working with simple message boxes
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Public Class Dialogs
Public Function ShowMessage(ByVal Msg As String) As String
Return MessageBox.Show(Msg).ToString()
End Function
Public Function ShowMessage(ByVal Msg As String, _
ByVal Title As String) As String
Return MessageBox.Show(Msg, Title).ToString()
End Function
Public Function ShowMessage(ByVal Msg As String, ByVal Title As String, _
ByVal Buttons As Int16) As String
Return MessageBox.Show(Msg, Title, CType(Buttons, MessageBoxButtons) _
).ToString()
End Function
Public Function ShowMessage(ByVal Msg As String, ByVal Title As String, _
ByVal Buttons As Int16, ByVal Icon As Int16 _
) As String
Return MessageBox.Show(Msg, Title, CType(Buttons, MessageBoxButtons), _
CType(Icon, MessageBoxIcon)).ToString()
End Function
Public Function ShowMessage(ByVal Msg As String, ByVal Title As String, _
ByVal Buttons As Int16, ByVal Icon As Int16, _
ByVal DefaultButton As Int16) As String
Return MessageBox.Show(Msg, Title, CType(Buttons, MessageBoxButtons), _
CType(Icon, MessageBoxIcon), _
CType(DefaultButton, MessageBoxDefaultButton) _
).ToString()
End Function
Public Function GetInput(ByVal Msg As String, ByVal Title As String)
Return InputBox(Msg, Title, “Type a value”)
continues
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