Message Path - bad behavior

[Thomas J McGrath III]

I need some advice. Bear with me on this explanation. The issue is the 
message path and openCard messages. Some times it does things 
unexpectedly.

I have been tracking a problem with my stack. I have a main stack and a 
bunch of substacks.
I set up the preOpenStack to handle some global variables and to set 
the screenLoc.
I set up the preOpenCard to handle some handlers available in this 
stack.
I also put a OpenCard in my stack script to handle specifics to this 
stacks cards.

My problem is two fold:
1. Due to newness I put a pass Opencard in the openCard handler in my 
main stack. When I push a button to open another stack from the third 
card in my main stack the message goes to the main stacks opencard of 
it's first card and not even to the openCard of the card I was on. This 
has caused a weird glitch where the substack being called some times 
goes behind the main stack when called via Go.
I eliminated the pass  openCard in the main stack and now the message 
path goes instead to the script of the card I am on.

Concerning the pass openCard:
It seems like the pass openCard that is at the lowest level is being 
passed UP the line cause I press a button on card three and it goes 
right down to the lowest level and then goes up the path finding  
opencards. It should not do this.. It should only go down from button 
to card it is opening and then down the line. (believe me that this is 
happening and I think it is a bug or bad behavior at least)

The path "with the pass openCard in the main stack" when I select the 
button on card three is: (the key here is card three)
Button on card three - pressed (go to stack "Whatever")
	main stack  - preOpenCard
	main stack - OpenCard
	Whatever stack - preOpenCard
	Whatever stack - OpenCard
but sometimes it goes: (this should never happen)
	card 1 of main stack - preOpenCard
	card 1 of main stack - OpenCard
	Whatever stack - preOpenCard
	Whatever stack - OpenCard
The difference is that in the script of the main stack is a openCard 
that is different then the one that is in card 1 of the main stack!!
Why cause I want certain things to happen all of the time via the main 
stacks openCard and somethings I only want to happen when card 1 of the 
main stack is opened!!

The path "without the pass openCard in the main stack" when I select 
the button on card three is: (the key here is card three)
Button on card three - pressed (go to stack "Whatever")
	main stack  - preOpenCard
	main stack - OpenCard
	Whatever stack - preOpenCard
	Whatever stack - OpenCard
Always happens....... It appears like sometimes it look in one place 
and other times it looks else where. Meanwhile I didn't want it to look 
there at all.

2. What do I do to stop the message path when in substacks from going 
to handlers in the main stack. (I thought all I had to do was NOT pass 
the message ie. do nothing except trap the message where I am at)

Would it not be better if there was a difference between the stack and 
substack?????  This way a substack would act more like a truly separate 
window and things can be set up that are only specific to this substack 
and not EVER related to the main stack UNLESS I program it to do so.

Like:
stack - preopenStack
stack - openStack
stack - preopenCard
stack - openCard
AND
substack - preopenSubstack (not related to the preopenStack and only 
applies to the substack we are in)
substack - openSubstack (not related to the openStack and only applies 
to the substack we are in)
substack - preopenCard - (but with no pass preopenCard then it does not 
go to main stack anywhere)
substack - preopenCard - (with a pass preopenCard then it goes to the 
main stack)
substack - openCard - (but with no pass openCard then it does not go to 
the main stack anywhere)
substack - openCard - (with a pass openCard then it go to the main 
stack)


Tom

Macintosh PowerBook G-4 OSX 10.3.1, OS 9.2.2, 1.25 GHz, 512MB RAM, Rev 
2.1.2


Advanced Media Group
Thomas J McGrath III	• 2003 •	3mcgrath at adelphia.net
220 Drake Road, Bethel Park, PA 15102