On May 29, 2007, at 08:55:36 -0700, Richard Gaskin wrote:
1. Search (and edit) all scripts in a stack, including substacks
2. More advanced standalone saving
3. More detailed info in the Help docs
a. Often the Help Index assumes you know something already,
sometimes I want to learn something new, and the Help Index doesn't
give me enough to even make the attempt, I must search thru the online
archives in the hopes that somebody posted detailed code in answering
somebody else's question. Even a line or two of example code would be
useful, but often isn't there.
Great summary.
I think the path forward is an invitation to the open source advocates
in the Rev community to put up:
With Klaus maintaining his role in coordinating things (thank you
Klaus!), we could use owners for these components just as we've had
owners for other components (e.g. Ken's done a wonderful job managing
the Variable Watcher).
I'm willing to be owner of the Standalone Builder.
Do we have folks
here willing to take on Search and Docs?
Concerning Docs it's sort of done already.
1) Wilhelm Sanke wrote excellent stack "SearchDocs XML 2.6.1.mc" a
while ago.
http://www.sanke.org/MetaMedia/Screenshots.htm
Unfortunately it can process only pre vs 7.x Rev documentation (in
operates on vs 2.6.1 to be precise) but it covers almost all my needs
and the great strength of this solution is that it finds all instances
of the search word, even in descriptions and comments. In a way it
makes instant cross indexing of the whole documentation (Dictionary +
FAQ + Topics) by given search word.
2) For the latest docs (Rev 2.8.1) I use a stack from Björnke
http://bjoernke.com/runrev/stacks.php
It works fine in MC (just drop it in MC plug-Ins folder, set the
externals of this stack to "RevXML" and follow it's set up
instructions. Stack would create folder with about 1500 XML files in
it, but I can leave with that. It even has built in tool to customize
it's own layout and I believe it can be easily adopted to use Ken's XML
library instead of RevXML if needed.
Concerning stack wide search, I guess like many of us, I wrote my own
a while ago. It's sort of enhanced "control browser" that shows the
structure of multiple stacks of interest and their substacks at once
and can search scripts across them, even searches the script of
unplaced Bg Groups if any. The problem is that the interface is ugly
and definitely not user friendly. Besides, anything like such stack
would deviate from the philosophy of a lightweight IDE. it's more like
personal tool.
As for HyperCard style "ss" script search, I think it should be
possible to do in MC. All it takes is to hold execution of the "ss"
search script while user edits the script of the object that contains
search string. Execution can be hold with "wait for messages", the
problem is what should be the "release" trigger.
Off the top of my head here is the ugly hack that would imitate
HyperCard "ss" script search behavior
on searchScript tSearchWhat,stackName
-- ... snip..
repeat with curControl = 1 to the number of controls
if the script of control curControl contains tSearchWhat then
edit the script of control curControl of card curCard
HoldTheExecution
end if
end repeat
-- ... snip...
end searchScript
on HoldTheExecution
put number of lines of the OpenStacks into N
repeat until number of lines of the OpenStacks < N
if the commandkey is down and the shiftkey is down then exit to top
-- just in case something goes wrong
wait for messages
end repeat
end HoldTheExecution
The idea is that when script editing is done, the user closes "Script
Editor" stack by pressing enter key and "searchScript" handler moves to
the script of the next object that contains search string.
Now, there must be a lot of better ways to do that, I'm just saying
that if one really wants to have the HyperCard style "ss" script
search it should be possible to do it in MC.
Best regards
Tariel
What other areas might we consider?
The philosophy of a lightweight IDE continues to hold appeal for
serious
developers. If we can elevate MC's usability and affordances to meet
or
exceed Rev's while still holding true to that philosophy, I see no
reason why any switching couldn't be happening in the other direction,
just as it is with Galaxy.
There are many who expound on the benefits of open source. This is an
opportunity to demonstrate those benefits, delivering an IDE which is
to
Rev what Firefox is to Internet Explorer.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Media Corporation
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