Recently, Kay C Lan wrote: >> Scott Rossi wrote: >> >> You can think of custom properties as global variables that are tied to >> objects, instead of variables that float around in space. >> > > With all due respect gentlemen, why is that for something so simple and > already understood, an analogy is used that is only tangentially related.
In my example, I used a global analogy because 1) setting/modifying custom properties do not inherently make any visible changes in an object, unlike textColor or other built-in object properties; and 2) many, many years ago, I was in a similar situation as Judy, not able to grasp the what/why of custom properties, and this analogy is one that would have helped me out at that time. The same was true for me with the concept of groups/backgrounds. Coming to MetaCard from SuperCard, I could not for the life of me understand why something called a "background" could appear *in front* of another object. It made no sense to me. Only after getting more entrenched in the environment did I start to understand the how and why of groups, and it was many months later that Richard Gaskin provided a description that made sense to me: a background is just a group that may (or may not) be shared across multiple cards. (Why something called a "group" can contain only a single object is another conundrum that I won't get into now.) It's not a question of what should be "so simple", it's a question of what helps someone grasp a concept. Regards, Scott Rossi Creative Director Tactile Media, Multimedia & Design _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
