4D should have a constants editor, just like it has the list editor. But it doesn't. I've gone both way on constants in 4D. I now use 4DPop for this feature (and nothing else.) It's a bit of a pain but not terrible. I tend to add a bunch of constants in a go and then not need to change them again for ages. I don't know, that's got to be more to do with how I write code than anything else, I guess. Note that since constants are an external XML file, it's possible to write them by hand on-the-fly. I never have, but you could.
There are a couple of advantages to constants, the main thing being in the name "constant" versus "variable": * They are constant. You can't accidentally set them to different values at different times. Huge deal. * There is no way to accidentally fail to initialize them. * They display with the underline, making them distinctive. I think that makes code a bit nicer. At the least, it makes it obvious to another 4D programmer that you've got constants rather than variables. IP vars are easier to work with but their value can be inconsistent and there's no way to know if they're constants apart from convention. If you do go that way, I'd recommend naming constants in all upper-case, like many languages. It's ugly, but at least your pseudo-constants look like something different from regular IP variables. ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) FAQ: http://lists.4d.com/faqnug.html Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: http://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:[email protected] **********************************************************************
