Plugins menu (was: Re: Speaking of IDE Updates)

[Richard Gaskin]

Wilhelm Sanke wrote:

> On Dec 28 Richard Gaskin wrote:
> 
>> (snip)
>> Once we have a Plugins menu in place you can mix and match your favorite
>> editing components without bothering with wacky stuff like my UmbrellaMan
>> tool. :)  We can play around with those and start a duscussion of
>> candidates
>> for inclusion in the main distribution, possibly including some
>> directly in
>> mctools.mc.  I'm anxious to see what Ken and Hugh are cooking up with
>> their
>> script library, and Scott Rossi has some good ideas about a resize
>> tool....
>> (snip)
> 
> 
> 
> I have uploaded a modified "mctools" stack to
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MC_IDE/files/ , the "files" section of the
> MC_IDE Yahoo group.
> 
> The modified stack contains a "Metacard Menu Bar" with an added
> "plugins" button.
> 
> The button checks for a "Plugins" folder, immediately updates the text
> of the menu button and opens the chosen menu item as modeless (tested so
> far on Windows).
> 
> I am unsure what should be added to the script of the Plugins menu
> button or whether the script may be too "simple". It works here without
> problems, but any suggestions and modifications are of course welcome.

Great work, Wilhelm.

I modified your version with the following changes:

- Added a new function to the MC backscript:

  function PluginsFolder
    put the filename of stack "mctools.mc" into tPath
    set the itemdel to "/"
    put "Plugins/" into last item of tPath
    if there is not a folder tPath then create folder tPath
    return tPath
  end PluginsFolder

  This allows any stack to get the name of the Plugins folder
  easily.  This version does not assume that the current directory
  is still the default value, building the fill path instead.
  Rather than alert of an error this version creates a plugins
  folder is one isn't present.

  Questions:
 
     - Should it create the folder autimatically, throw an error,
       or ask the user if it should create one?

     - Should functions in MC' backscript be prefixed with "mc"?


- Moved the stuff from the Plugins menu's mouedown handler into
  the menu group so it'll be triggered on Mac.


- If no plugins are in the folder, rather have than no menu at
  all it has one diabled item, "None"

  Question:  Should that be more descriptive, some think
  "No plugins installed", or would that be too verbose?


- Moved the Preferences item from "Tools" to the last item in
  "Edit", now conformant with Mac and Win HIGS and allowing the
  "Preferences" item in the Application menu to work on OS X.


The file has been posted as mctools.mc040102rg.gz for your review.


Process questions:

- When making changes to the MC IDE, should the person making the
  contribution post a note here to avoid potental version conflicts
  with someone else who may be doing the same?

- How can we clearly distinguish the latest release build from test
  versions for review in the Yahoo groups files section?


-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
 Fourth World Media Corporation
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