Whenever I use echos, I get confused, and spend extra time discerning how they work. I would like to suggest that the documentation be improved by adding explicit statements of echo behavior to make the following points.
It appears to me that some but not all "set echo" commands accept the name of an echo. "set echo top left", "set echo all/display/hidden/none/off" apparently do not accept an echo name, if the documentation is correct. It might be useful, in the documentation, to separate the "set echo" commands into two sections, explicitly stating that one section accepts an echo name and the other does not. It appears to me that while "echo" commands do not accept a name, they obey prior "set echo" commands, placing the echoed text into only the currently set echo name. It appears to me that "color echo" and "color echo background" commands spill forward (from the currently named echo to subsequently set echo names) but do not spill backwards to previously set echo names. This is OK but can be unexpected and confusing. Thus, in order to have different colors in an echo that follows an explicitly colored echo, one must explicitly color the new echo, or set its colors to none. If the first thing after "echo " is #, no text is echoed. If the # follows some text, e.g. echo hello # goodbye the "comment" is echoed. However if the echo text is quoted, then the following comment is not echoed. Again, OK, but could be confusing. I think this script demonstrates all these principles, and could be put into the documentation as an example. set echo off background white set echo myecho1 0% 100% echo 1 Default Colors set echo myecho2 40% 100% #color echo myecho2 yellow NAME NOT ACCEPTED color echo yellow color echo background green echo 2 Explicit Colors set echo myecho3 100% 100% echo 3 Inherits Colors set echo myecho4 0% 90% color echo red color echo background pink echo 4 Explicit Colors set echo myecho5 40% 90% color echo blue echo 5 Explicit Text, Inherits Bkg set echo myecho6 100% 90% color echo none color echo background none echo 6 Explicit Colors None set echo myecho7 0% 80% color echo black echo #comment7 set echo myecho8 40% 80% echo comment 8A #comment 8B set echo myecho9 100% 80% echo "comment 9A" #comment98B --------- -Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Jmol-users mailing list Jmol-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/jmol-users
