MC 2.5 Script editor

[Terry Judd]

>Cool it may be but I'm not sure enhancements like the one you 
>describe make life easier for the scripter. The time one spends 
>hitting the space key, reading a dropdown menu, choosing something 
>and so on, is most likely longer then just typing the command.

Surely this depends on the length of the command. For mine, this 
approach has clear benefits (both accuracy and speed) when typing 
urls into browser location bars.


>I used to get excited at script coloring until I noticed that 
>reading text of different colors was just harder then plain black 
>text. One of the reasons I never felt for Revolution was exactly 
>this richness of features and controls with which I found myself 
>spending more time reading and clicking then writing script. Maybe 
>it's really helpful for the beginners though I remember when I first 
>started with Supercard I spent most of the time in the less featured 
>environment.

Provided there is a careful choice of colours and they are not 
overused script colouring can help you identify many structural and 
syntax errors at a glance. It may decrease readability of the script 
as a whole but then who reads script as prose?

>Considering the huge acceptance and love for Hypercard which was the 
>bare minimum, I tend to believe that this hunger for artifacts has 
>it roots in marketing rather then need for extra functionality, sort 
>of like the popularity of hamburgers world wide.

I think there are plenty of people in the business of instructional 
design/usability business that will disagree with you (not 
hamburgers).

Cheers,

Terry...

>
>Regards, Andu Novac
>_______________________________________________
>metacard mailing list
>metacard at lists.runrev.com
>http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/metacard


-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
Dr Terry Judd

Biomedical Multimedia Unit
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences
The University of Melbourne
Email: t.judd at bmu.unimelb.edu.au
Phone: 03 9344 0187
Fax: 03 9344 4998
___________________________________________________________________________