>On Mon, 11 Sep 2000, Peter Reid wrote:
>
>> Here are some questions that have occurred to me during my
>> development work using MetaCard. I'm not sure whether I'm simply
>> missing a few tricks (not unheard of!), or whether these are genuine
>> feature holes.
>>
>> Some 'constant' questions:
>> 1) Is it possible to declare global constants or are all constant
>> declarations limited in scope to the script in which they are
>> contained?
>
>They're limited to one script. Suggestions about how to do it
>globally (like a #include in C) are welcome, but the discussion about
>this on the xtalk mailing list awhile back broke down before any
>suitable method was proposed (the big problems are establishing *when*
>the definition is to be done and what to do if the #included script
>isn't found).
>
>> 2) Is it possible to declare a non-printing (special) character as a
>> constant, e.g. something like "constant CRLF = $013$010" to declare a
>> end of line constant?
>
>No, but "crlf" already is a pre-defined constant ;-)
>
>> 3) Is it possible for a constant declaration to include expressions,
>> e.g. something like 'constant padding = tab & "|" & tab'?
>
>No, they must be either strings or numbers. Allowing escapes (like C
>strings) is something we considered but rejected.
>
>> Some script debugging questions:
>> 5) Is it possible to insert some special breakpoint or trap command
>> that let's you run scripts at near normal speed (without having the
>> script debugger open), but that will suspend the execution and allow
>> you to look at variable values etc. single step etc. - i.e that will
>> throw you into the script debugger ONLY when you reach a breakpoint?
>
>No, but this is on the feature-request list.
>
>> 6) Is it possible to 'watch' a variable, i.e. set up a monitor that
>> only kicks in when a named variable's value changes?
>
>Theoretically, yes. But there is no UI that supports this now so
>you'd have to hack up the debugger scripts, which is not an endeavor
>to be taken lightly.
> Regards,
> Scott
Thanks for the answers Scott - now I know (I'm not missing any tricks
this time!).
Cheers
Peter
--
--------------------------------------------------------
Peter Reid
Reid-IT Limited, Loughborough, Leics., UK
Tel: +44 (0)1509 268843 Fax: +44 (0)870 052 7576
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