Newbie Question

[Joe Lewis Wilkins]

Aha! So RR is just like HyperCard - except for custom properties and  
a few other querky things - as I knew all along. Thanks for the  
confirmation. No sarcasm intended. I'm serious!

Joe Wilkins

On Mar 29, 2007, at 8:12 AM, Devin Asay wrote:

> On Mar 29, 2007, at 5:27 AM, Simon HARPER wrote:
>> Hi there, and I do agree that, as a coder of 15 years, I would  
>> normally go on gut instinct. However, being used to c/c++, Java  
>> and Perl the Revolution Transcript syntax and expressions are not  
>> 'natural' for me, as I'm trained to think in the more mathematical  
>> syntax of these grammars and not the more discursive grammar of  
>> Transcript. I'm sure I'll get it with persistence but I just think  
>> that coders moving over could really do with good documentation as  
>> it just is not intuitive for a people with experience of these  
>> other 'conventional' languages, IMO.
>
> Simon,
>
> Richmond makes a good point, although I think it's an exaggeration  
> to say RunRev don't take documentation seriously. What most  
> developers, including myself, have discovered after a few weeks is  
> that the structure of the Rev scripting language (AKA Transcript)  
> is pretty consistent and therefore new things become easily  
> discoverable once the structure "clicks" in your brain. Here are  
> some of the "aha!" moments that helped me figure out Xtalk scripting.
>
> Rev scripting and object naming is case-insensitive.
>
> Variables are untyped.
>
> = is a logical comparison operator, not an assignment operator.
>
> almost all operators have both symbolic and verbose variants:
> 	= - is
> 	<> - is not
> 	+ - add
>
> To assign a value to a data container use
> put <value> into <container> (not <container> = <value>)
>
> There are *lots* of synonyms; eg., the constant return = cr = lf =  
> linefeed;
>
> Internally, all line delimiters are ASCII 10 (LF), but Rev  
> automatically translates to and from the OS native line delimiter  
> when reading and writing text files.
>
> The word 'the' is important; it means that what follows is a  
> property or a revolution function
> 	the <property> of <object> : set the visible of btn 1 to not the  
> visible of btn 1
> 	the <function> of <argument> : put the sqrt of 9 into myvar
> But functions also have an "algebraic" form:
> 	<function>(<arg>): put sqrt(9) into myvar
>
> Since Rev tries to be helpful, it's not picky about the use of  
> 'the' and will try make sense of a statement missing a 'the'. It  
> usually succeeds.
>
> Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between properties and  
> functions.
> 	Corollary: the distinction usually doesn't matter.
>
> You create variables by naming them in a statement.
> 	put 100 into george
>
> You create custom properties, which act just like built-in  
> properties, by naming them in a statement:
> 	set the squirrelCount of button "startSquirrels" to random(15)
>
> Arrays are really lookup tables, indexed by key strings, not  
> numerically.
> 	put "squirrel" into cage["favoriteRodent"]
> 	put "squirrel" into cage[1] -- is the same as -- put "squirrel"  
> into cage["1"]
>
> Object references are verbose, Rev doesn't use dot notation:
> 	button "mybtn" of card "mycard" of stack "mystack"
>
> I apologize if these seem trivial or too basic. They are just  
> things that "clicked" for me as I traveled along the xTalk path.
>
> Maybe others can share similar "Aha!" insights about the nature of  
> the Rev scripting language.
>
> Regards,
>
> Devin
>
>>
>> On 29 Mar 2007, at 12:15, Richmond Mathewson wrote:
>>
>>> I beleive one of the main reasons RR does not spend a
>>> lot of time and resources on updating documentation is
>>> because a very large number of programmers don't read
>>> the documentation in anything but a cursory manner -
>>> relying on their intuition, their past experience and
>>> their willingness ot "get their feet wet" instead.
>>>
>>> When I was learning PASCAL (Durham, 1984) the standard
>>> joke going around the computer labs was that the last
>>> person to write a computer programming manual had had
>>> a mausoleum constructed out of unsold copies.
>>>
>>> I have yet to read a really user-friendly programming
>>> manual as most computer-programmers who write manuals
>>> do not seem to spend a lot of time on audience
>>> research or the finer points of reader-response
>>> theory.
>>>
>>> The other reason why RR may not take their
>>> documentation too seriously is that, in my experience,
>>> the best manual I am aware of for Runtime Revolution
>>> is this Use-List - it is dynamic, adaptive and
>>> generally very friendly.
>
>
> Devin Asay
> Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
> Brigham Young University
>
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