Dave Cragg wrote: > I use this technique a lot so don't give up. Monte's point about > using compress on the "binfile" when making the compressed file may > be significant.
These are coming over the 'Net, and it seems the "go url" command faithfully transfers binary files as such -- thanks to you and Mpnte, I found the limple logic error ib my script and now it works great. Thanks! Hopefully the lil' toy I'm making with this wil be useful for you folks as well.... >> The "go stack" command takes a stack descriptor rather than stack data, so >> it would seem your example is expecting MC to treat the decompressed stack >> data as a stack descriptor, no? > > I thought the same until I started messing around one day. Monte's explanation made it clear for me: even a stack descriptor ultimately becomes evaluated to stack data. Just when you think you've learned everything about a language there's always another few thousand things to learn. :) > Another trick is to set a custom property to a compressed stack file. E.g. > > set the cMagicStack of this stack to compress(url > ("binfile:path/to/file.mc")) > > Then do this: > > go stack decompress(the cMagicStack of this stack) > > I've never used this for anything practical, but I've often wondered > about employing this technique as a way of creating configuration > palettes for distributable widgets that you create as a group of > objects. Normally you would use a substack as a palette, but you > can't copy substacks with groups. > > For example, you might make some kind of table object as a group of > fields and buttons. And you've made it in a way that you can > configure various settings, for example, the number of columns or > rows. You might do this with some setprop handlers in the group. Then > you want to copy the object into various other stacks. But you want > to be able to configure the settings of these copies with a visual > interface instead of relying on scripting. So you create a stack that > lets you set the configurable options for the widget (rows, columns, > whatever) and put the stack inside a custom property of the group. > You also provide a means in the group (option-clicking for example) > to open this "magic window". Feasible? I would imagine so. Ever since MC added gzip support I've been a happy boy, with the limitation that gzip files contain only one file and lose the Mac meta data. But enamored as I am of using custom props as carriers for binary daa, I've been working on a simple tool to compress a folder's contents into gzipped customm props in a stack file, with Mac meta data preserved on decompression. Time permitting I'll have that done in a couple weeks after I clear some more urgent projects off my plate. In the meantime I wrote a very simple utility for gzipping and un-gzipping single files, with the mdest benefit of having the Mac filetype set appropriately if the decompressed file ends with ".mc" or ".rev". I just uploaded it to the RunRev user contributions page -- hopefully it will appear there soon. -- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation Developer of WebMerge 2.1: Publish any database on any site ___________________________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com Tel: 323-225-3717 AIM: FourthWorldInc _______________________________________________ metacard mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/metacard