MC IDE v2.6b7 package (was: Re: Filters for Transcript Dictionary)

[Richard Gaskin]

Wilhelm Sanke wrote:

> Meanwhile I added the filter routines to the latest version of the 
> Dictionary (Starter) and sent the modified file (7 K) directly to you 
> (as I could not find out how to upload it to the files page of the Yahoo 
> MC_IDE site).

Got it - thanks.  I could add you as a moderator to the group if you 
like, but since this will be included with the build it may not matter 
much in this case.

> A few observations concerning the new (and old) IDE version:
> 
> - The width of the Tools and Help menubuttons of the Menubar needs to be 
> adjusted, e.g. "Message Box" etc. is not fully readable

I don't understand:  "Message Box" is the name of a menu button; it's a 
menu item in the Tools menu.  Are you saying that your copy of the 
engine is clipping the rendering of pull-down menus on your system?

> - Setting a HTML-Text in the answer dialog is restricted to the prompt 
> text, what about the buttons? In former versions it was possible to set 
> the textsize and textstyle of all parts of the text (compare my stack 
> "Transparent Dialogs")

I'm not familiar with your dialogs, but I don't recall there being an 
API for altering the text font and size of the Ask and Answer dialogs 
(other than, of course, setting the font for the stack they're in).

Which version supported such an API and where was it documented?

As far as I know the htmlText property only applies to fields.


> - As already mentioned by others, the width of the dialogs needs to be 
> adjusted, too.
> 
> For the answer dialog this can be done in the last line of the following 
> repeat-handler of the card script by changing the former 14 of the added 
> width to 28
> 
> "repeat with i = 2 to nchoices + 1
>     show button i
>     set the name of button i to line nchoices + 2 - i of it
>     set the width of button i to the formattedWidth of button i + 32
>     add the width of button i + 28 to bwidth #this is the line
>   end repeat"

That loop adjusts the width of the buttons only, and has been updated 
(for Mac at least) in b7 to honor the Aqua HIG.  If Micro$oft ever 
chooses to finish their HIG to include such specifications for controls 
we can honor those as well.

But aside from the buttons, the width of the dialogs seems much better 
than Rev's, where they can be very, very wide.

What sort of change to the dialog width did you have in mind?


> - There is some "ambiguity" in the Resource Mover - and has been since 
> the beginning of Metacard:
> 
>  * checkbox "MetaCard Icons" only copies about 8 icons - needed for the 
> dialogs - into the stack
>  * "Icons Set in Scripts" should be renamed as it refers likewise to 
> icons that are set in the properties dialog of buttons

What should we call them instead?
Or should we change the behavior of "MetaCard Icons" to copy the entire 
stack?

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com