The Aborted Plunge (Metacard to Revolution)

[Tariel Gogoberidze]

On May 29, 2007, at  08:55:36 -0700, Richard Gaskin wrote:

>
>> 1.  Search (and edit) all scripts in a stack, including substacks
>> 2.  More advanced standalone saving
>> 3.  More detailed info in the Help docs
>>       a.  Often the Help Index assumes you know something already,
>> sometimes I want to learn something new, and the Help Index doesn't
>> give me enough to even make the attempt, I must search thru the online
>> archives in the hopes that somebody posted detailed code in answering
>> somebody else's question.  Even a line or two of example code would be
>> useful, but often isn't there.

>
> Great summary.
>
> I think the path forward is an invitation to the open source advocates
> in the Rev community to put up:
>
> With Klaus maintaining his role in coordinating things (thank you
> Klaus!), we could use owners for these components just as we've had
> owners for other components (e.g. Ken's done a wonderful job managing
> the Variable Watcher).

>
> I'm willing to be owner of the Standalone Builder.


>  Do we have folks
> here willing to take on Search and Docs?

Concerning Docs it's sort of done already.

1) Wilhelm Sanke wrote excellent stack "SearchDocs XML 2.6.1.mc" a 
while ago.

http://www.sanke.org/MetaMedia/Screenshots.htm

Unfortunately it can process only pre vs 7.x Rev documentation (in 
operates on vs 2.6.1 to be precise) but it covers almost all my needs 
and the great strength of this solution is that it finds all instances 
of the search word, even in descriptions and comments. In a way it 
makes instant cross indexing of the whole documentation (Dictionary + 
FAQ + Topics)  by given search word.

2) For the latest docs (Rev 2.8.1) I use a stack from  Björnke

http://bjoernke.com/runrev/stacks.php

It works fine in MC (just drop it in MC plug-Ins folder, set the 
externals of this stack to "RevXML" and follow it's set up 
instructions. Stack would create folder with about 1500 XML files in 
it, but I can leave with that. It even has built in tool to customize 
it's own layout and I believe it can be easily adopted to use Ken's XML 
library instead of RevXML if needed.

Concerning stack wide search, I guess like many of us,  I wrote my own 
a while ago. It's sort of enhanced "control browser" that shows the 
structure of multiple stacks of interest and their substacks at once 
and can search scripts across them, even searches the script of 
unplaced Bg Groups if any. The problem is that the interface is ugly 
and definitely not user friendly. Besides, anything like such stack 
would deviate from the philosophy of a lightweight IDE. it's more like 
personal tool.


As for HyperCard style "ss" script search, I think it should be 
possible to do in MC. All it takes is to hold execution of the "ss" 
search script while user edits the script of the object that contains 
search string. Execution can be hold with "wait for messages", the 
problem is what should be the "release" trigger.

  Off the top of my head here is the ugly hack that would imitate 
HyperCard "ss" script search behavior

on searchScript tSearchWhat,stackName
-- ... snip..
  repeat with curControl = 1 to the number of controls
       if the script of control curControl contains tSearchWhat then
         edit the script of control curControl of card curCard
         HoldTheExecution
       end if
     end repeat
-- ... snip...
end searchScript

on HoldTheExecution
   put number of lines of the OpenStacks into N
   repeat until number of lines of the OpenStacks < N
     if the commandkey is down and the shiftkey is down then exit to top 
-- just in case something goes wrong
     wait for messages
   end repeat
end HoldTheExecution

The idea is that when script editing is done, the user closes "Script 
Editor" stack by pressing enter key and "searchScript" handler moves to 
the script of the next object that contains search string.

Now, there must be a lot of better ways to do that, I'm just saying 
that if one really wants to have the HyperCard style  "ss" script 
search  it should be possible to do it in MC.

Best regards
Tariel

>
> What other areas might we consider?
>
> The philosophy of a lightweight IDE continues to hold appeal for 
> serious
> developers.  If we can elevate MC's usability and affordances to meet 
> or
> exceed Rev's while still holding true to that philosophy, I see no
> reason why any switching couldn't be happening in the other direction,
> just as it is with Galaxy.
>
> There are many who expound on the benefits of open source.  This is an
> opportunity to demonstrate those benefits, delivering an IDE which is 
> to
> Rev what Firefox is to Internet Explorer.
>
> -- 
>   Richard Gaskin
>   Fourth World Media Corporation