Property Table Type Doc Index for all entries

Dennis Brown see3d at writeme.com
Thu Jun 2 15:06:44 EDT 2005


After using the Properties of Objects (POO) stack a bit, it occurs to  
me that this might be an efficient way to organize an index into all  
the entries in the dictionary.  I find it a lot easier to learn by  
doing than reading a novel first.  However, it helps to have some  
hints about what you can do.  For instance with the POO I can sort on  
an object type and have a nice alphabetical list of the properties I  
might be interested in exploring.  This is a quick way into the  
dictionary that is theme based.  I thought about:

Messages sorted by the objects that initially receive them
Operators sorted by Binary,Numeric,String,etc...
Functions sorted by Binary,Numeric,String,etc...
Constants sorted by Binary,Numeric,String,etc...
Keywords sorted by ???
Command sorted by ???
Control Structures to few to sort
Objects to few to sort

I can envision a simple table like the POO with 8 tabs for the 8  
categories and the rest of the operation is the same.

It is an easy task to automatically generate the name lists for each  
category, but it takes reading each entry in the dictionary to  
manually place the "X" in the right columns.  Unlike, the POO  
properties which was a completely automatic process.

Unfortunately I don't have the time to take on this whole project  
right now (I am behind on my main project and I don't generate  
Transcript very quickly yet), but I wanted to at least put down my  
thoughts and ask for some feedback.  And of course if anyone else  
wants to take up this project now, you will have my full support.  I  
could see an extension made to the POO stack with the 8 tabs and a  
mode to enter the "X" into the tables by hand.  Perhaps it could be a  
collaborative effort like the ClockFace.  That was fun!

Any other thoughts about the utility of this or other ideas?

Dennis


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