ptg7068951198 HOUR 14: Laying Out a User Interface
Q&A
Q. Why are some of the text fields in the LottoMadnessapplication shad-
ed in gray while others are white?
A. ThesetEditable()methodhas been used on the gray fields to make
them impossible to edit. The default behavior of a text field is to enable
users to change the value of the text field by clicking within its borders
and typing any desired changes. However,some fields are intended to
display information rather than take input from the user. The
setEditable()method prevents users from changing a field they
should not modify.Q. Was there a Willy Wonka golden ticket winner in Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factorywhose death was too horrible for the movie?
A. The fate of Miranda Piker was so gruesome that she was dropped from
the final draft of Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
which inspired the 1971 movie and its 2005 remake. Piker was a smug
child who believed children should never play so they could attend
school all the time. Her father was a school headmaster.
Piker and the other kids at Wonka’s factory are introduced to Spotty
Powder,a sugary concoction that causes the eater to break out in red
spots so they can feign illness and miss school. Piker and her father
become outraged and decide to destroy the machine that makes it.
As their screams are heard from the adjacent room,Wonka explains that
they’ve gone into the place where the candy’s ingredients are ground
into powder. “That’s part of the recipe,” he tells Miranda’s mother.
“We’ve got to use one or two schoolmasters occasionally or it doesn’t
work.”
The Oompa-Loompas celebrate her demise with song: “Oh,Miranda
Mary Piker,/How could anybody like her,/Such a priggish and revolting
little kid./So we said,‘Why don’t we fix her/In the Spotty-Powder
mixer/Then we’re bound to like her better than we did.’/Soon this child
who is so vicious/Will have gotten quite delicious,/And her classmates
will have surely understood/That instead of saying,‘Miranda!/Oh,the
beast! We cannot stand her!’/They’ll be saying,‘Oh,how useful and
how good!’”