Creating reusable code libraries

gwalias-rev at yahoo.com gwalias-rev at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 21 12:36:52 EST 2004


Dear Revolutionaries

I have some newbie questions ...

What would be the best way in Rev. to create a
reusable code library - e.g. to do 3D mathematics?
Would I create it as a stack script in an otherwise
empty stack and then load the stack into my apps and
keep it invisible? Do all stacks have to have a
toplevel window?

I am still a little unclear on the relationship of
stacks, substacks and cards. Supposing I have created
a mainstack already - what is the difference between
adding a new card to the mainstack or adding a new
substack? Stacks and substacks both have to have at
least one main card - yes? How is the relationship of
a substack to its stack, different from that of a card
to its stack (or substack)?

How could I draw graphics with code rather than
interactively with the graphics tool? Supposing I
wanted to e.g. draw and show a contour map of a
terrain from a numerical set of coordinates and
elevations provided by a surveyor?

Can I call a function in an external library from rev.
e.g. from a windows DLL? If so, how would I do this
exactly?

Can I create and use lists (unkeyed arrays) in rev?

I believe that compiled rev. applications are using a
runtime engine - what is the performance of this
approach compared to C (at the fast end) or Java (at
the slow end)? Are some rev. features slow compared to
others? How should I use program in rev. to get the
best performance?

I also have a comment or two ...

The lack of a decent manual makes it hard to assess
how useful rev is for applications that are more than
just a GUI with some scripting in the background. The
help information and documentation seems fairly
comprehensive but rather spread around, making it hard
to find stuff unless you already know the name of the
keyword or function you're looking for. Is there
anywhere on the web where I could find a conceptual
overview of the Transcript programming language?

Revolution is potentially very interesting, but I am
really having a hard time figuring out whether it can
really do what I want it to do, so that I could stump
up the cash for it with confidence. If it's really
just a GUI builder, I cannot tell how easy it would be
to combine it with other libraries to do the beind the
scenes computation - or maybe rev. can do that for me
as well - are there any examples of more elaborate
applications out there that could shed some light on
Revolution's abilities as a general development
platform?

Sorry it's a bit long - lots to ask!

Best

Gordon



More information about the use-livecode mailing list