Hi, Darius,

Three other points of clarification here...

(1)  If the morph is a SketchMorph, then shift-resize does indeed 
preserve the original aspect ratio.  I assumed that was what you were 
asking about, though evidently not ;-)


(2)  Secondly, note that if a morph is "flexed", i.e. if it has been 
rotated (a sure sign of this state is that the yellow resize handle 
has turned to something more like pale-orange) then resizing with 
that pale-orange resize handle will also be aspect-ratio preserving.

Thus, a standard, if obscure, way to get aspect-ratio-preservation as 
you resize any morph is:

-- Rotate the original object, slightly, with the blue handle.

-- Then resize it, again only slightly, with the (now pale-orange) 
resize handle.

-- Now rotate the resized guy back to its original zero orientation. 
Since the resulting morph is still "flexed," note that the resize 
handle remains pale-orange.

-- The resulting morph will preserve aspect-ratio as you resize it 
with its still-pale-orange resize handle.

I've always thought this to be pretty strange, but that's the way 
it's always been, since the dawn of generic rotation in Morphic 
nearly seven years ago :-)


(3)  Note, finally, that manipulating #scaleFactor in an object's 
*viewer* (found in the "geometry" category,) or in a script, will 
also preserve aspect ratio for any morph.


Hope one or more of these observations is helpful...

Cheers,

  -- Scott


At 12:16 PM -0700 9/13/04, darius at inglang.com wrote:
>Thanks. That helps a bit. But that's not quite what I expected.
>_
>
>When I first discovered it the first time, somehow the resize halo itself had
>turned orange and had "scale" in the balloon help.
>
>Also holding the shift key forces the width to equal the height forcing
>everything into a square. That's not the same as preserving the x/y aspect
>ratio.
>
>If "scale" cannot preserve the aspect ratio, is there another 
>function that can?
>In essence, I want a smaller version of my rectangle morph, not a smaller
>square. The same is true for the polygon morph.
>
>Cheers,
>Darius
>
>
>
>
>Quoting Scott Wallace <scott.wallace at squeakland.org>:
>
>>  Hi, Darius,
>>
>>  Hold down the shift key as you operate the resize handle.
>>
>>  Cheers,
>>
>>     -- Scott
>>
>>  At 12:23 AM -0700 9/13/04, darius at inglang.com wrote:
>>  >I accidentally found the "scale" halo as opposed to the "resize" halo. I
>>  can’t
>>  >get it again when I need it.
>>  >
>>  >How do I get the "scale" halo that keeps the morph’s x & y
>  > >proportion the same?
>  > >(Shouldn't it be easier to find?)
>  >