How to enter a text string into a text variable from the keyboard

[randy0428]

I must be really, really, REALLY stupid. For four hours I've been trying to find a good explanation or tutorial (video or text) on how to enter a text string into a text variable from the keyboard, i.e., basically perform the ioread() function of lua. But I haven't found any.

What I basically want to do is create a questionaire where the program:
1. prints a question
2. the user types in an answer
3. and then clicks a submit button
4. the program prints the next question and this continues until the last question is answered.
5. the program prints the questions and the user's answers to the screen and says "Thanks for participating."

I know how to print the questions, but I can't figure out how to then wait for the users typed input and mouse input to click the submit button. Is there a tutorial or explanation of how to do this somewhere?

Thanks.
Randall

[0x72]

This is very primitive input (and button) but I hope it'll help.

Basically don't think in terms of waiting as the game should not wait (not in a way a cli apps does with io.read()) - it rather reacts to events and you just hold some state (if needed) in a variable. Read about love.textinput and love.keypressed callbacks.

Code: Select all

local questions = {
  'What is your name?',
  'What is your quest?',
  'What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?'
}

local finished = false
local answear = ''
local current_question_pos = 1

function proceed()
  if answear ~= '' then -- let's disallow empty answers
    print(answear) -- or save somehow, somewhere
    answear = ''
    current_question_pos = current_question_pos + 1
    if current_question_pos > #questions then
      finished = true
    end
  end
end

function love.draw()
  love.graphics.setColor(255, 255, 255)
  if finished then
    love.graphics.print('Thanks for participating.', 10, 30)
  else
    love.graphics.print('Q: ' .. questions[current_question_pos], 10, 30)
    love.graphics.print('A: ' .. answear, 10, 60)
    love.graphics.rectangle('fill', 10, 100, 90, 30)
    love.graphics.setColor(0, 0, 0)
    love.graphics.printf('next', 10, 110, 90, 'center')
  end
end

function love.mousepressed(x, y, btn)
  if (10 < x and x < 100) and (100 < y and y < 130) then
    proceed()
  end
end

function love.keypressed(key)
  if key == 'backspace' then answear = answear:sub(1,-2) end
  if key == 'return' then proceed() end
end

function love.textinput(text)
  answear = answear .. text
end

[pgimeno]

A text entry field is a "widget" in GUI terms. The easy way to get text input fields and buttons is to use a GUI library. There are a number around.

Or you can go the DIY way like 0x72 suggests, but things may get complicated if you want it not to crash when deleting non-ASCII characters such as ñ. Most GUI libraries take good care of handling that gracefully.

[randy0428]

Thanks for yourhelp, guys.