mctools.mc v2.6b10 posted

[Richard Gaskin]

Robert Brenstein wrote:
>> RG wrote:
>> Once we confirm the IDs of the splitter cursors in Rev, should we 
>> update MC's to match those?  I'm inclined to say yes to be done with 
>> it, even if the numbers are oddly out of sequence.  Objections?
> 
> Is there a way to somehow set references to the cursors at startup in 
> order to keep compatibility with earlier engines? I mean a startup 
> script checking the engine number and setting custom properties for 
> example, which are then used elsewhere instead of id's directly?
> 
> I may be totally of the wall with this since I have no time to dig into 
> the source codes at this time. But such a dereference would make IDE 
> more immune from any changes in this area that RR springs on us in the 
> future.

The general consensus has been that we should not be afraid to break 
with versions more than a year old, and at the time it seemed I was the 
only one who liked the idea of having MC IDE compatible with all 
versions of the engine since it went open source.

But your suggestion sounds workable, and can be done with acceptable 
effort. Given that v2.6 is the first MC IDE with plugins support perhaps 
it's worth doing this for now, as long as we all acknowledge that at 
some point down the road it may become a good idea to just take the 
plunge and break with the past, keeping old versions available for use 
with older engines while moving the current version forward without 
saddling itself with that responsibility.

If there are no objections I'll make that change once we confirm the 
cursor IDs for splitters in Rev to avoid further incompatibility issues.



The only other change outstanding at the moment is the proposal to move 
the storage of pres out of the Home stack and into the Preferences 
folder on Mac, Application Data on Windows, and a mcPrefs.mc file in the 
program folder for UNIX/Linux.

The benefit to doing this is that it begins to free us from being bound 
to the Home stack, which we know will need to be replaced at some point 
down the road, and allows options like FlipsIDE to retain prefs when 
flipping into MC from Rev.

If this idea remains attractive to the community it might be nice to 
include it in v2.6 because at that point we have no firm enhancements 
planned, making it a more complete baseline build that we can stick with 
for a while.

If there are no objections to doing this in this version I could 
incorporate that into B11 for your review.


Note on testing b10: this time I remembered to run mcStripAndShip 
beforer posting, so many of the issues reported with b9 (sorry, Kalus, 
to have fudged your fine release) should be gone.  In keeping with the 
tradition of 100% bug-free delivery of final releases, please pound on 
b10 and submit reports here or to me personally so they can be addressed 
quickly.

At this time the only known issue should be with any of the splitter 
cursors, which will be addressed once we confirm the Rev IDs for those. 
  Please report all other issues you find.

TIA -

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