Planned changes for b9

[Klaus Major]

Hi friends of the MC IDE,

i am planning to add some tiny but handy changes to the next version of 
the MC IDE...

And GrandPoobah gave me the good advice to start a poll before that 
will be done ;-)

OK, here is what i want to do:

1.
Only important on the win/*nix:
Add a checkbox "Hide tools" to the "MetaCard Menu Bar", that will 
shrink/grow
the stack to hide/show the tools, just in case someone is using the 
"Tools palette" or an
replacement of that to save screen estate and avoid redundancy...

2.
Add a checkbox "lock messages" to the group "Substacks" of the "Stack 
components".
So when doubleclicking the listfield or clicking "Toplevel" or "Delete" 
the messages are
locked/not locked accordingly...

3.
Only important on win (maybe *nix, too, i have no idea if there is 
something like version info?)
Add 2 buttons "Save settings" and "Load settings" to the "Version Info" 
stack of the standalone
builder... You guess what they will do ;-)

I invented a new fileformat (actually it is just a fancy suffix for a 
simple textfile ;-)
called ".sabu"***, which stands for StandAlone BUilder...

***Just like the indian boy, who played the Mowgli in the 1942 movie 
"Jungle book"...
He was so poor, he could only afford ONE name apparently: SABU (prename 
or name, who knows) :-D

4.
Add a tiny whiff of intelligence to the standalone building routine! :-)
Right now you get thrown out of the game if you forget to add the 
correct suffix for your standalone
(EXE on WIn or APP on OS X)...

I could:
A: add the missing suffix automatically and silently
OR
B: ask the user to let me add that suffix or not

5.
Only important on the win/*nix:
Change the "auto positioning" of the "MetaCard Menu Bar"...
Right now it will position itself on top of the current topstack, which 
might be offscreen,
especially if you have the "Home" stack in the topright corner of your 
screen...

My suggestion: On top of the monitor (room left for the window border) 
and some pixel off of
the left side of the monitor so the tools palette or my 2lz3 will fit 
on the left of the menubar...

Know what i mean?

Something like:

TOOLS | MetaCard Menu Bar
TOOLS |
TOOLS |
TOOLS |

6.
Only important on the win/*nix:
Add an iconify/unicoify handler to the "MetaCard Menu Bar" stack, so 
ALL open stacks are
hidden/shown when you un-/iconify that stack, just like REV does ;-)


OK, that's so far, i will drop a line if i have more changes on my mind 
:-)


Now the big question(s):

1.
Could live with these changes in general?
[ ] Yes
[ ] No, i am just too conservative

2.
Standalone builder
[ ] Add missing suffix silently?
[ ] Ask the user?

3.
Position of Menubar on win/*nix
[ ] Put Menubar on (almost) topleft corner of the screen
[ ] Put it ............................. (fill in your favourite 
position)
[ ] Leave it as is, i will do my own thing :-)


I think the other options won't hurt, since you just don't have to use 
them
in case you don't like them...


Thanks for your audience! MC rules!


Best from germany

Klaus Major
klaus at major-k.de
http://www.major-k.de