The list is at <http://revolution.byu.edu/design/bestpractices.html>

I'm interested in anyone's thoughts about them.

Are they helpful?
Could some of them inadvertently cause problems down the road?
Have I left something important out?

on Thoughts

Name all objects: Absolutely! Even using an ID can come back and bite you later. There are situations where even that can change. For example, you inadvertently copy and object without realizing it. You discover this later, and delete one of the two. If you delete the one whose ID you used in a script, OOPS! I know there are other cases where an ID would change.

Comment your scripts: Agree again. Sometimes naming the handler to match isn't enough, especially with a long script. One thing I do with very long scripts with many if's and repeat loops nested, is to comment the beginning and ending of an IF or REPEAT, in order to match them up. I've got scripts where it's nearly impossible to figure out which END goes with which beginning. And if you're trying to troubleshoot, having things well labeled can be a lifesaver.

Cross platform issues: There are many more issues than text and colors. Option buttons appear so much differently that I had to force one program to use a particular look and feel on every platform. There were no button style choices that looked and behaved as desired on all platforms. Preference locations and permissions issues are vastly different. My Mac users almost never bump into permissions issues, but my Windows users are constantly encountering this, so I've had to change how I save anything on Windows. So check your stack on several computers to make sure it saves data properly to whatever text files, preference files, or stacks you have with changing data. Creating desktop shortcuts is also handled differently depending on the platform. Too many differences to recall at 1 a.m. :-)

Another cross platform issue: Consider the screen size, and how the menus will vary from platform to platform in relation to affecting your available screen real estate. So choose a stack size accordingly. Remember that Macs will have not only a Mac menubar, but the dock as well, affecting your available territory. If you want your stack to completely fill the screen, don't use a menubar, use buttons in the stack window.

BIGGEST cross platform issue: Don't hard code your file paths for preference file locations! If you do, they might work today, but tomorrow they will break, guaranteed. How many folks ever hardcoded the path to C/Program Files or something similar? With all the Windows permissions issues, as well as issues for other countries systems being slightly different, always use Rev's built in specialFolderPath().

end Thoughts
--
Windows and Macintosh shareware games
BIackjack Gold
http://www.gypsyware.com
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