working method?

[Chipp Walters]

Great thread.

I'd like to second Sarah's and Dan's recommendation..that is putting the 
scripts as high as possible in the message path (with buttons and 
controls at the top, not the bottom like Dan likes them;-)

But, I try and never script a mouseUp handler more than a few lines. For 
instance, I might have the script of button "Delete Row":

on mouseUp
   put altSelectedLine() into tLineNum
   deleteRow tLineNum
end mouseUp

Then I'd have also in the same button script:

function altSelectedLine
   put the hilitedlines of fld "test" into tLineNum
   if tLineNum is empty then
     answer "Please choose a row!"
     exit to top
   end if
   return tLineNum
end altSelectedLine

This function can be called by any button which needs to know the 
hilitedline number of fld "test." So, I leave it in this button's script 
until I create a new button "Edit Row", then I move it to the next 
level, the card script.

Also in this button's script:

on deleteRow pLineNum
   if pLineNum is "all" then
     put empty into fld "test"
   else
     delete line pLineNum of fld "test"
   end if
end deleteRow

Now, if later I need a 'stripAndship' handler for resetting my project 
to 'new', I might end up putting this 'deleteRow' handler in the stack 
script because it would be called as such:

on stripAndShip
    deleteRow "all"
    --> DO OTHER RESET STUFF
end stripAndShip

So, the idea is to keep the handlers and functions high up, and 
progressively demote them as you have more objects taking advantage of 
the same function.

HTH,
Chipp