license issues (was mystery exception)

[J. Landman Gay]

On 3/12/03 3:08 AM, Robert Brenstein wrote:

> All true but how easy is it to use the engine of a standalone to couple 
> it with full development GUI to produce new products? Is message box 
> really fully functional in standalones?

As it is now, no. But if there were no script limit, yes, it would be. 
The message box executes its own "do" statement. All you'd have to do 
would be to copy any script from the starter kit and paste it into the 
message box to gain full functionality. Or just type any long series of 
script statements into the message box and hit the enter key. You 
wouldn't have the GUI, but you could do anything the engine can do.

> If so, I rather have no message box than do limit.

The problem with this is that the message box is just a stack. If there 
were no script limits, the user could just type a script into a field in 
any stack, then put "do me" into the field script. Maybe what you mean 
is that you'd prefer that no script editing be allowed except in 
licensed copies -- but that would make a starter kit pretty hard to produce.

> Consider a scientific application that involves modelling or 
> function fitting. I have written such a program some years ago (sold as 
> shareware) and would love to recreate it with MC/Rev (users still ask 
> for it but the old code stopped working with OS 8). It requires users 
> entering complex math functions that program matches to the provided set 
> of experimental data, calculating statistical fit and producing 
> graphical output. It would be trivial to run it through "do", but the 
> 10-line limit is a killer.

Would you be willing to post an example of a "do" statement that is 
difficult or impossible to accomplish within the current 10-line limit? 
I think it might be interesting for the list to see if the problem is 
really insurmountable. And if we can bypass the problem it might give 
some folks an idea of how to accomodate script limits without 
sacrificing useability. Sounds like an interesting challenge to me. I 
confess that I have not had to use any more than a single-line "do" 
statement in years and I have trouble imagining where I'd need one.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com