using SHELL for open/save dialog

[joq85]

It has been so long since I last used QB and there are some things I've forgotten that are driving me mad.

I remember I always hated using a 'INPUT "Open which file? ", a$' type dialogs to ask a user to find a file. Then the user would have to figure out where the file was by randomly guessing at directories and my program would keep replying "File not found." This was my preferred (and only) method used in my programs until I found a very glitchy and unfinished 'paint' clone that actually had windows style open/save dialogs! I was amazed and I had to know how it worked, but of course there was no source code.

It was probably another year before I finally figured it out, and oddly, I can't remember how or where I found the code. But I know that it involved the SHELL command. I tested it out and I was able to take individual lines from the 'SHELL "dir"' command and put them into a string variable, making it easy to create dialogs with scroll bars and such displaying the directories and files, of course without printing DOS nonsense all over the screen.

Now I have been desperately searching google for the answer and it seems all hope is lost of me ever recalling how it all worked. If anyone has any clue what I'm talking about, please tell me I'm not crazy, because I know it was some method so simple that is probably right under my nose.

[burger2227]

SHELL "DIR > Files.txt" for current directory or you need a path. You can later access the text file and it can be used as a string name. You can list them in a program and allow a selection from the files listed.

Ted

[joq85]

aha! I remember now, thank you burger