"Text fields"

[joshhighley@hotmail.com (Josh Highley)]

For the experience and just for fun :) I'm writing something like a 
point of sale program.  There's places to type the name, item, 
description, etc.  I'm using screen.MoveCursor to go to each text area 
to get information.  As is, I'm using get_immediate to get each 
character of info and testing to see if it's ENTER, BACKSPACE, or to be 
added to the info string.  This seems rather inefficient and tedious to 
code.  I've also got a task running that puts the time in the lower 
right hand corner of the screen.  Therefore, I have to continually 
update the task on where to return the cursor to after it prints the 
time.  Needless to say, moving the cursor around everywhere and testing 
the input to see what should be done with it, is making things tedious 
to code and the program is slow for not doing much.  So, finally, my 
question is, is there a "standard" or accepted way to get information 
from different parts of the screen, move between them, and also capture 
ENTER and BACKSPACE in a manner other than what I'm doing?  Basically, 
am I on the right track.  I'm writing the program for DOS.  I'm using 
GNAT 3.10, AdaGIDE 6.18, and Win 95.

P.S. I installed AdaGIDE 6.21, but when I ran it the screen around the 
toolbar buttons and the strip through the middle w/ cursor position,etc. 
 was a dark gray like the background when no file is opened, instead of 
a light gray like normal.  Anybody know what's causing this?  It's a 
little distracting for some reason.

If you've read this far, I appreciate it, Thanks,

Josh Highley
joshhighley@hotmail.com