Some clues... (and 3 handlers)

[David Bovill]

Thanks for that Jack - in response here are 3 handlers you can use to check
stacks without getting these error messages and without ending up with them
loaded into memory:

function stack_Exists someName
    -- will not add stack to memory

    set lockmessages to true
    put the mainstacks into stacksInMemory
    put empty into shortStackName
    if exists(stack someName) then
        put true into safeExistence
        put not(shortStackName is among the lines of stacksInMemory) into
needToClose
        if needToClose then
            stack_CloseMain someFile
        end if
    else
        put false into safeExistence
    end if
    set lockmessages to false
    return safeExistence
end stack_Exists

function stack_GetShortName someName
    -- will not add stack to memory

    set lockmessages to true
    put the mainstacks into stacksInMemory
    put empty into shortStackName
    if exists(stack someName) then
        put the filename of stack someName into someFile
        put the short name of stack someName into shortStackName

        put not(shortStackName is among the lines of stacksInMemory) into
needToClose
        if needToClose then
            stack_CloseMain someFile
        end if
    end if
    set lockmessages to false
    return shortStackName
end stack_GetShortName

function stack_GetFileName someName
    -- will not add stack to memory

    set lockmessages to true
    put the mainstacks into stacksInMemory
    put empty into someFile
    if exists(stack someName) then
        put the filename of stack someName into someFile
        put the short name of stack someName into shortStackName

        put not(shortStackName is among the lines of stacksInMemory) into
needToClose
        if needToClose then
            stack_CloseMain someFile
        end if
    end if
    set lockmessages to false
    return someFile
end stack_GetFileName

Now my question is if there can be a confusion with stacks of the same name
- while the above handlers do not set anything so are safe I think - where
and when exactly can things o wrong? As an example:

  set the name of stack somefile

Would I guess always work as expected (even if there are two stacks in
memory with the same short name). So is there never any harm if you refer to
things with the long id - and you can then safely script away using
lockmessages as in the above script? That is this "problem" - basically an
IDE problem, and if you properly script your own application - Transcript
wont goof up on you?