> A dialog to manage the stacksInUse -- Similar to an
> open-stack dialog. Select a stack, as before. Click
> on the "start" or the "stop" button, according to
> whether the currently selected stack is in use or
not.
Uli: I like that.
Alain: Wonderful :)
>> b) A dialog to view/modify the "Applications"
>> c) A dialog to view/modify the "Documents"
>> d) A dialog to view/modify the userLevel
Uli: Wouldn't that essentially just replace the
corresponding cards in the "Home" stack?
Alain: Yes. That's exactly what I am aiming for. The
application should not presume that user-manipulable
cards and components will be present in a given user's
Home stack. NO assumptions at all would be ideal. The
whole idea of HyperCard requiring a stack called
"Home" in order to run is a mistake that we must fix.
Uli: And what about the "Stacks" ?
Alain: OK, stacks too.
>> a) New button tasks
Uli: Certainly. That was what button tasks were
intended for, anyway.
Alain: Odd that Apple never provided a way for people
like ourselves to add new buttonTasks.
>> b) New dialog to upload/download by FTP
Uli: Sounds cool, but what is the actual use? There
already are specialized applications like Fetch and
Anarchie. Do you have any special features in mind
that are of advantage to FreeCard or HyperCard?
Alain: First and foremost, I would like FreeCard users
to be able to download artefacts from the
Pantechnicon, such as externals and handlers, without
resorting to some external web app to do this. The
handlers FTP will be particularly interesting because,
for example, you could import a Pantechnicon handler
directly into the scriptEditor as you are scripting.
Alain: The same goes for the Pantechnicons icons,
cursors, and other authoring resources. Inside the
dialog named "iconChooser", you could click a button
that would search/fetch the Pantechnicon's icons. Same
idea for the Pantechnicon's Help/Assistance features.
Uli: e.g. providing some sort of installer so people
can download new stacks and GUI updates .. ?
Alain: Yes, this too. :)
>> c) Improved scriptEditor
Uli: I suppose you have taken a look at MC's, SC's,
AS's and RealBasic's script editors?
Alain: I have glanced at them, when the occasion
presented itself, but I will surely examine them all
when brainstorming the new ScriptEditor. I think that
AppleScript's editor has nothing to offer us though.
Uli: CompileIt also has a nice implementation of a B/W
syntax coloring scheme (basically just uses bold and
italics).
Alain: You could use bold, underline, italic,
fontFace, fontSize (deprecated). You could also group
portions of a complex expression such that the groups
reflect the structure of the syntax. For example:
put card field 2 into bg btn 1
where:
"card field 2" is grouped
"bg btn 1" is grouped
Uli: What I am missing here is a menu bar editor.
Alain: Quite right!
Uli: I think there is such a stack on my web site.
Maybe you could incorporate that?
Alain: Sure. Why not? This a collaboration after all.
:)
>> 4. By and by, FreeGUI will be ported to MetaCard,
>> and to FreeCard when it is released. But we need
>> not preoccupy ourselves with these eventualities
>> at this time.
Uli: Good thinking, this will calm down many of those
who intend to help in development...
Alain: I thought that you were alluding to the
visceral dislike of MetaCard by many HyperCard fans
...
Uli: as they have the prospect of their work
continuing but also they don't need to worry about
other languages.
Alain: Yes. This is non-political technical reasoning
that underlies this move. It's good design-sense to
keep the GUI distinct from the engin and the language.
>> a) Web-savvy from A to Z
Uli: Again, make sure you don't include features you
only need personally ...
Alain: My aim with regard to FreeCard is to
approximate 100% compatibility of HyperCard as we know
it now. Once this is achieved, I am discharged of my
responsibility. After that, we will see how things
play out. I want to continue being responsive to
FreeCard's needs, but I do have an agenda of my own
that I wish to achieve in the next six years (or
more). Anyone wishing to embark on my bus is welcome
to, and the journey is not mapped out in advance
(democratic), but I have some definite ideas of what
sights I would like to see on the way.
Uli: ... in a way that doesn't allow others to remove
them. If you devise a clever plug-in scheme, users can
easily remove stuff they don't need or add their own.
Alain: This is a good accomodation, if and when it
pans out. More modularity is almost always better than
less modularity. Let's aim for this.
Uli: HyperCard *can* be used for everything, that much
is true, but there are reasons where it shouldn't.
Alain: For instance ? ;-)
>> b) Collaboration tools
Uli: Same concerns, however if you keep them generic,
this could go to great lengths in helping in
development of FreeUI.
Alain: In my view, collaboration is in everyone's
interest because the lone-wolf developer that does an
entire project without any outside contact, is an
increasingly rare phenomenon. At the very least, you
are in collaboration with your customers and/or the
people who will be using your wares, aren't you?
>> c) Integrated authoring system and artefacts
>> -- think "Pantechnicon" ;-)
Uli: Script library and all that, I suppose?
Alain: There is more to it than that but, at this
time, your statement is essentially correct.
Uli: Have you thought about libraries of buttons,
cards etc. ? Readymade buttons is cool, but something
more readily available is often preferrable.
Alain: I chose to focus my attention on the scripting
because that is the skill that is the least prevalent
in the public at large. This lack of scripting ability
is notably true in Education. As for the multimedia
aspects that you mention above, they will be included
in time, but they are not my primary focus right now.
Among other things, factory-style stereotypical
graphics are often looked down upon, by developers and
users alike.
>> d) Computer-assisted methodologies
>> and development training
Uli: Could you elaborate?
Alain: To answer this adequately, I would need an
entire post. Which I will do, eventually. For now,
suffice to say that I want to create a development
infrastructure that makes its users more
methodological and increases the quality of their
development work. And not just the work of an
individually. Collectively too.
>> e) Adaptive agents to assist users/developers
Uli: These can be helpful, but keep in mind that
assistants are often most useful for initial setup of
a program but prevent users from knowing how they
would do things without the assistant.
Alain: I am not talking about installation wizards. I
am announcing the preliminary draft idea of my
doctoral research project which involves modeling
users/learners in order to augment their potential, to
form effective groups, etc. The basic idea is the
"adaptive-agent" will adapt to its user on a
continuous basis. It will spot opportunities to
educate the user, in-situo, if they are so disposed.
Uli: This leads to people going through the whole
assistant again, probably messing up their setup when
they could just select a certain menu option and
change the setting there.
Alain: I don't like the current state-of-the-art in
wizards, either. Much work remains to be done.
Uli: They need to learn the easy way of doing
something with the assistant *in addition to* doing
something the usual way.
Alain: That is my aim. My agents don't only do it for
you. They also show you how things work and how you
can improve your performance/knowledge.
Uli: Thus, maybe an improved UI that doesn't need
assistants might be a better solution in that regard.
Alain: I understand what you are writing, and I have
often thought this too, but for any task of moderate
complexity, you should provide help/assistance.
>> 4. Toggle between freeGUI and HyperCard's native
>> GUI with a functionKey
Uli: Will this be user-configurable?
I have a keyboard without FKeys.
Alain: Sure. No problem. All you have to do is type
"toggleGUI" in the message box and/or you can call
this handler however you wish. The menubar has been
redefined though, so be careful if you trigger it with
a menuItem.
>> 5. Some of the dialogs don't really do what they
>> are supposed to. ex: iconEditor, patternEditor ...
>> the thumbnails of recentCards are bogus ...
Uli: Do you know about copying a card and then typing
Cmd-Shift-V to insert it? That gives you an accurate
thumbnail.
Alain: I utterly forgot about that trick. Awesome! And
its scriptable too. :))
>> d) read/write of text-files will be replaced by
>> a real file-format (Uli's)
Uli: I'll have some real time on my hands again in
about a week, I hope to get XStackFile and the XBF
external into a useful state for you then.
Alain: No pressure. And sorry for not consulting you
about this sort-of announcement that your file-format
will play a role in FreeGUI in the near-future. I knew
I could count on you though, and, as it turns out, my
presumption has panned out. So all is well! ;-)
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