>OK, you start ;-)  While I think there'll be a tendency to design a
>camel here (one person just wants support for binary data, another
>wants standard access to engine internals like the SC toolbox, while
>a third wants to build a whole plug-in architecture), starting out
>with some pie-in-the-sky ideas doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.
>Let's hear 'em.

Scott,

 welllllll....

 seriously, my pie-in-the-sky ideas would be (less obvious/most wanted first):

 1) passing binary data as parameters
 2) callbacks to handle associative arrays or similar keyed data structures
(as parameters, return value etc.)
 3) callbacks to manipulate objects, i.e. GetProperty()/SetProperty(),
access and creation to/of user properties
 4) Everything HyperCard has for XCMDs, except maybe the xWindow stuff and
debugger
 5) Persistent externals that can be used for platform-specific hacks
(callbacks etc.)

Of course, if you want PIE-IN-THE-SKY, I'd add

 6) Adding custom part types
 7) Fully customizable english-like syntax for XCMD and XFCN calls
 8) cross-platform drawing and windowing callbacks, and everything else
like file management, mouse tracking ...

 Then again, I probably wouldn't want to be the one to implement the latter :-T

Cheers,
-- M. Uli Kusterer

------------------------------------------------------------
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       'The Witnesses of TeachText are everywhere...'
 The future of programming: http://freecard.sourceforge.net


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