Saving Preferences

[Ken Norris]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the Re.

> From: "Ken Ray" <kray at sonsothunder.com>
> Subject: RE: Saving Preferences
> Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 01:21:06 -0500
> Organization: Sons of Thunder Software

>> Why throw away? Seems more laborious than just having a
>> permanent Prefs substack (which would become its own Prefs
>> file when building for distr., right?).
> 
> True, but having it in an external file means that it is in a
> user-readable form that can be modified externally by other programs or
> by administrators without opening the stack each time. A lot of it
> depends on who the application is going to (i.e. what market).
----------
Well, I meant for the Prefs substack to become a separate (external) file at
build time.
----------
> Also, I haven't quite understood the advantage of developing with a
> substack of a mainstack and then at the last minute breaking it out into
> a separate stack... I would think that if I really wanted a substack to
> be separate file, I would have started with it that way...
> 
> Can someone enlighten me?
----------
I'd say it has to a lot to do with ease and speed of development and
buildout. It also depends on content and intentions for use (memory and
performance parameters).

During development, a substack _feels_ much more integral to the project
from a development standpoint. Knowing a substack can be its own
environment, with cards, groups, backgrounds, menus, and objects, but, while
in the IDE, it's easier and faster to test for interaction, tracking
changes, and otherwise manipulate things relative to the Main stack. You can
treat it simply as another hierarchical level, or as a separate file
requiring a filepath, and you don't have to decide which works better until
the project is near completion.

If it performs better as an integral substack, and isn't likely to require
updating, then leave it as an integral substack. If you need to update it,
or work on it independently, then break it out as a separate file at build
time.

OTOH, if it's just text or images with no objects or anything, or your plans
are such that you know it will be updated regularly, then it may be OK to
start it off as a separate file. The problem would be that if, during
development, you wanted to integrate it into the main project, it would take
extra work to do that.

HTH,
Ken N.