I've written an application that downloads some information from the web
that it needs to store, and perhaps later update. To do this, the
application uses a stack external to itself. The external stack gets
modified and saved. To make the application self-contained and robust, it
stores a template of this external stack as a substack, and uses the
substack to create the external stack if need be. This works very well.
(Thanks, MetaCard!) I have two questions, based on the following code in
the script of the first card of the application's main stack:
on preOpenStack
set the loc of this stack to the screenloc
end preOpenStack
on openStack
send "goPrefs" to me in 2 seconds --the application's first card is a
splash screen
end openStack
on goPrefs
put the directory & "/prefs.mc" into theStackFile --get the expected
path
lock screen
if there is a file theStackFile then --is the file there?
close this stack --if so, just get out of the way
go stack theStackFile --and open the external stack with its own
parameters
else
clone stack "prefsTemplate" --otherwise, clone the template substack
set the name of it to "prefs" --give it a unique name
save stack "prefs" as theStackFile --save it to the external file
go stack theStackFile in window of this stack --open in the splash
screen's window
end if
unlock screen
end goPrefs
Question #1: is this the best way to do this? I think I remember someone
saying I should name the external something other than *.mc so it won't
be double-clickable; anything else?
Question #2: if I'm creating the external for the first time, I want it
to start in the window of the splash screen. However, despite the lock
screen message, I still see the clone stack appear offset from the splash
screen, before it hops into the splash screen's position. Is there any
way to do this better, without the shifting window bit?
Thanks
gc
