a tip for newbies (like me)

[BCE]

I keep forgetting this each time I try it, so I thought I might save someone
else the time of wondering what in the world is happening if they try this
too.  And maybe I'll remember it if I wirte it down!

The goal:

Ask a user for a text file, then put the contents into a field.  Simple
enough.

The WRONG method:

on mouseup
    ask file "What file?"
    put "file:" & it into field "myField"
end mouseup


The RIGHT method: (at least for me, on windows)

on mouseup
    ask file "What file?"
    put ("file:" & it) into field "myField"
end mouseup

Notice the parentheses in the second line --- they make the difference.
Otherwise, just the name of the file is put into the field, and not the
contents, and a lot of hair pulling occurs.  Apparently if you're
concantenating a variable and some text into the name of a file, this needs
to be done.

Hope that helps some folks out.  Later!

Mark Paris