On Sun, 15 Aug 1999, Geoff Canyon wrote:
> One time there was a debate on the SuperCard mailing list about which was
> better: runtime editing, or the more modal technique employed by
> SuperEdit. At the time I didn't care much one way or the other, but one
> comment made by a SuperEdit proponent is echoing in my mind right now: he
> said something like, "I prefer to perform surgery on my projects without
> the patient squirming around on the table while I do it."
>
> I'm finding that I miss SuperEdits "no scripts" environment, and even the
> "scripts only run when you're running the project" aspect of SuperCard's
> standard editor. I use on openCard messages to trigger things to happen
> in my program (an educational product), and they seem to go off even if I
> don't have the browse tool selected. As a defense, I've stuck in a front
> script that traps openCard, closeCard, openBackground, and
> closeBackground messages. Is this the best way to stop MetaCard from
> automatically moving me on to the next card, etc., or is there something
> I'm missing?
The ditty I commonly use in the MB is:
lock messages; go <whatever>
I've also heard of people adding a feature like this to the standard
navigator or to custom navigators that let you choose a card by name,
id, etc.
As for the development philosophy, we don't really have a choice: it's
just not practical to build something like no-scripting tool like
SuperEdit cross platform (indeed, if SuperCard is any guide,
apparently it's very difficult to even keep a MacOS-only tool up to
date). But I personally really dislike both SuperEdit and PE because
there's just way too long of a lag between when I make a change and
when I can test it. This is one of MetaCard's biggest advantages over
those other scripting languages that make you restart the whole app
just to test your changes, and it's a productivity enhancer on par
with having a high-level language and a direct-manipulation layout
editor.
Regards,
Scott
> Thanks
>
> gc
>
> Geoff Canyon [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "C.D. Caterpillar teaches kids how to read, not how to watch cartoons."
>
********************************************************
Scott Raney [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.metacard.com
MetaCard: You know, there's an easier way to do that...
