ARE YOU SERIOUS REV TEAM? MAJOR SCRIPT EDITOR ISSUES

[Chipp Walters]

Hi Peter,

Welcome to Revolution. Sorry you're having so many problems. Reminds me 
when I first starting trying to integreate VB scripts with the Visual 
InterDev and not knowing what I was doing, got very upset...

Of the many issues you complain about, some are part of learning how to 
use Rev. Sorry. As Richard says, there are other script editors out 
there, but all of them come with a learning curve.

And, there are also many of us who are developing Professional 
applications using the IDE you so quickly dismiss. I think a bit of 
patience and perseverance may go a long way to solving your problems. 
For instance, this past week I built a font rendering engine and font 
editor, with full anti-aliasing support. Of course there were some 
hurdles to deal with. A couple emails to support and this list helped 
solve the problems. Richard's correct about the ROI, if you can get your 
head around the technology (which some people have a harder time doing).

Now regarding your concerns. One thing to remember, is that unlike most 
all other script platforms, the RR IDE was built entirely with 
Transcript. This is a testament to just how powerful the engine is.


Peter Armstrong wrote:

> 01 Going to single handler view, closing the script
> then opening again, then back to multi-handler view
> lost ALL MY STACK SCRIPT.  EMPTY.  THEN OTHER SCRIPTS
> IN THE STACK APPEARED TO BE EMPTY TOO!  ALL EMPTY!?

I don't know about this one, as the first thing I do when I open my copy 
is set it to multi-handler view. Been doing that for years, and I 
haven't had the need to post in all caps about it ;-) If you're worrying 
about losing data, check out my free altArchive plugin at
http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/altPluginCover/about.htm


> 
> 02 Going to 'single handler' view doesn't parse the
> last handler, handler name shows but content appears
> empty.

Again, I stay primarily with the multi-handler view. So, this issue 
isn't a 'deal killer' for me.

> 
> 03 Syntax coloring doesn't work properly (not
> everything is parsed correctly) and ends up looking
> like a handful of colored balloons... I needed to
> customize colors to make any sense of this.

The colorization of scripts is something not supported by the engine, so 
the RR team creates a custom property set to hold this data. Sometimes, 
the set is cleared out, especially after building a standalone. I have a 
  plugin altClean which removes all of these custom properties and 
reduces the file sizes significantly.

I, agree, the parsing doesn't always color correctly. Try using the tab 
key to help auto format. Jerry Daniels has a script editor called 
'Constellation' which does a much better job. It's currently in beta and 
should be released at RevCon West.

> 
> 04 On some occasions (when a modal dialog is open, an
> error occurs?) dialog after dialog repeatedly appears
> warning that 'can't edit while executing'.  Seemed to
> appear three times?

Yep, that's a problem, you can't edit a script during execution. You 
need to control-period and terminate the current script which is 
running, then edit and save your script. Of course, I'm not aware of any 
other language which allows you to edit the script which is currently 
executing. I'm sure Andre or Dar will correct me here :-)

> 
> 05 Pre-emptive typing seems to only parse some of the
> keyword tokens?  I can't work out what is parsed and
> what is not: functions, constants...?  For example
> 'openstack' is parsed, 'itemDel' isn't?  (Actually it
> did parse once, then it didn't the second time?) 
> Don't know.

Again, not a feature I use, but you can right click on any token in your 
script to open the Reference manual....though it doesn't always get it 
right. There are other ref manuals out there too. Daniels and Sanke both 
have one.

> 
> 06 On another occasion all my script formatting (bold
> etc) was lost. Something happened, I opened and all my
> careful formatting was GONE.

Yep, see my comment above. Good idea not to use the formatting capability.

> 
> 07 Windows all over the place.  I found I was
> constantly opening up the variable watcher, shuffling
> windows around (I'm on a 22 inch monitor), resizing,
> closing opening trying to see what is going on. 
> Surely during development these could be organized
> properly, perhaps with variable watcher attached to
> the side or bottom of the script window with and
> expander triangle?  I found I had to constantly expand
> the width of this to see things properly.

Most of us settle into a window configuration we like. I prefer using 
the application browser to the right of the revMenubar, the toolbar 
along the left, my stack windows just below the revMenubar, the script 
editor below that, the msg box right below the app browser, and the 
variable watcher under the msg box.

Course, you're mileage may vary. Also, I set it up in Prefs under Script 
Editor:

Hide Palettes OFF
Hide Message Box OFF
Hide Errors OFF


> 
> 08 Lots of incorrect errors.  I got 'Can't find
> Handler' when in fact it was an error in the script of
> the stack handler!!  What sort of message is that!? 
> Wasted time trying to work out why the message wasn’t
> being passed down the message path.

Those are engine messages, and aren't always correct. In your case, the 
handler called in the script editor may not have been able to compile 
correctly and so the error is thrown there. Understanding how to use the 
debugger will help solve most all of these issue.

There should be a good session on using the debugger at RevCon West.

> 
> 09 I found sending more than one parameter in a
> function call from the message box only accepted the
> first parameter.  Fine if sent from a button but no
> good if sent from message box. 2nd, 3rd etc parameters
> are ignored.

You're doing something wrong. Create a stack. put the following in the 
stack script:

function concatThis p1,p2
   return p1&&p2
end concatThis

type into the msg:
put concatThis("hello","world")

you will see the result below:

hello world.


> 
> 10 Escape doesn't close the window, it puts some weird
> symbol in the script window. The 'double-enter' to
> accept and save a script is kinda weird, why can't you
> stick to a more conforming 'save and close' system?
> 
> ----------------------------

Hmmm, to me Escape is kinda weird as a 'window closer'. I guess it's all 
in what you like. The reason why Apply doesn't save and close is that 
for many of us, we want the script window to stay open. If you want to 
apply and close, all at once, then ctrl-return will do the trick.

> 
> After enjoying your software my confidence rating
> dropped to ZERO.

As I said, a little patience, perseverance and some politely worded 
questions on the list here will go a long way.


> I know some will brand me as a 'disgruntled
> programmer', 

Yep, you got that one right.

-Chipp Walters