SHOP TALK: TRAPPING THE TAP-AND-HOLD EVENT

Pocket PC substitutes the tap-and-hold movement in place of the right mouse click. The tap-and-hold movement is simulated by placing the stylus on the screen and holding it in place. A control's ContextMenu control is activated this way.

You may want to respond to a tap-and-hold in other ways beyond bringing up a ContextMenu. To do this, you must use a little creativity. First create a Timer control whose interval is set to the amount of time a user would have to hold the stylus to the screen before triggering the tap-and-hold functionality. Then capture the MouseDown event on the control that will be handling the tap-and-hold event. In the MouseDown event, enable the Timer. Next trap the MouseUp event and disable the Timer in handle. Finally, in the Timer's Tick event handler, perform the action activated by the tap-and-hold event. The following code demonstrates how to handle the three events described above:

C#
private void Form1_MouseDown(object sender,
        System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs e) {
  timer1.Enabled = true;
}

private void Form1_MouseUp(object sender,
        System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs e) {
  timer1.Enabled = false;
}

private void timer1_Tick(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {
  label2.Text = string.Format("Message: {0}", "Hello, World!");
}

VB
private sub _Form1_MouseDown(sender as object,
        e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) _
        Handles form1.MouseDown
  timer1.Enabled = true
End Sub

private sub _Form1_MouseUp(sender as object,
        e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) _
        Handles form1.MouseMove
  timer1.Enabled = false
End Sub

private sub _timer1_Tick(sender as object,
        e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) _
        Handles timer1.Tick
  label2.Text = string.Format("Message: {0}", "Hello, World!")
End Sub

C#
private void timerButtonMove_Tick(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {
  if(!gameOver) {
    this.button1.Location =
      new Point(rand.Next(0, 168), rand.Next(0, 216));
  }else {
    EndGame();
  }
}
private void timerProgressBar_Tick(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {
  if( counter < 60 ) {
    if( gameOver )
      return;

    if(this.progressBar1.Value < this.progressBar1.Maximum)
      this.progressBar1.Value += 1;

      ++counter;
  } else {
    if( !gameOver ) {
      EndGame();
      MessageBox.Show("Boom!", "Loser");
    }
  }
}

private void EndGame() {
  this.timerButtonMove.Enabled = false;
  this.timerProgressBar.Enabled = false;

  counter = 0;
  this.gameOver = true;
  this.button2.Enabled = true;
}

VB
Private Sub timerButtonMove_Tick(ByVal sender As Object,
        ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles timerButtonMove.Tick
  If Not gameOver Then
    Me.button1.Location = _
      New Point(rand.Next(0, 168), rand.Next(0, 216))
  Else
    EndGame()
  End If
End Sub

Private Sub timerProgressBar_Tick(ByVal sender As Object,
        ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles timerProgressBar.Tick
  If counter < 60 Then
    If gameOver Then
      Return
    End If

    If Me.progressBar1.Value < Me.progressBar1.Maximum Then
      Me.progressBar1.Value = Me.progressBar1.Value + 1

      counter = counter + 1
    Else
      If Not gameOver Then
        EndGame()
        MessageBox.Show("Boom!", "Loser")
      End If
    End If
  End If
End Sub

Private Sub EndGame()
  Me.timerButtonMove.Enabled = False
  Me.timerProgressBar.Enabled = False

  counter = 0
  Me.gameOver = True
  Me.button2.Enabled = True
End Sub