"Seamless Tiles Generator 2" updated

[J. Landman Gay]

Wilhelm Sanke, FB01 wrote:

> One of the already known issues is the unfriendliness of the Rev IDE towards
> customized answer and ask dialogs. 

I'll play "devil's advocate" here for a moment. The warning about 
duplicate stacks does not include only the answer and ask dialogs; it 
also includes any stack with the same name as one already open. The MC 
IDE, like Rev, also warns of duplicate stacks, with the exception that 
it ignores the answer and ask duplications. But if the developer is not 
careful, it is possible to damage the native MC IDE dialogs during 
development.

Revolution used to ignore these duplications too, but changed the IDE a 
few years ago. I suspect there were too many accidents.

> On the other hand the Rev IDE is  "over-protective" in some respects (and for
> reasons that escape me) and does not like such customized dialogs.
> Take a look at the script of btn "revfrontscript" of stack "revlibrary" which is
> inserted as a frontscript for the Rev IDE and comment out lines 992 to 1006 in
> handler "revCheckStackCollision". This will stop the complaint about the answer
> dialog and otherwise will have no effects on how the Rev IDE will function.

If the user has custom ask and answer dialogs, and does not receive a 
warning about them, it is easy to inadvertently change the wrong stack, 
the one in the IDE. I am working with a stack right now that has 
duplicates like this, and I am seeing lots of misdirection when I have 
my own answer dialog open. It's very important to make sure you supply a 
long stack reference to the copy you really want to save. This isn't 
always obvious to new users.

> 
> Alternatively it would be a good choice to get the Metacard IDE and just place
> the latest Rev engine into it. Most - if not all - of your problems will then
> disappear.

 From a personal perspective I have to agree with this. When I want a 
streamlined, no-nonsense interface, I use the MC IDE. But since the 
majority of Rev users aren't as comfortable with the command line, and 
many are still learning the capabilities and language syntax of 
Revolution, I don't think this is a good answer for many users. The Rev 
IDE is much friendlier to new users than the MC IDE. Many users have 
never switched their preferences to show the language syntax in Rev's 
property inspector, and aren't even aware of the native syntax for 
properties. These users would have a difficult learning curve if they 
changed to the MC IDE where they need to type in these property names 
and other commands. (On the other hand, they'd learn it pretty quickly 
if they did.)

> 
> Another annoyance is the fact that with version 3 of the Rev IDE the blue stack
> "Rev Centre" keeps popping up all the time after a customized answer or ask
> dialog has finished the execution of its script. I have not yet found out from
> where this annoyance originates. Same recommendation as above: Get the Metacard
> IDE.-

This can be turned off in the General pane of Rev's preferences (last 
option at the bottom.)

> 
> And: I hope the mail service of our server will now work properly. I saw that
> even my post about "Twofold posting of mail" was sent twice.

Seems to be fixed, I've only seen one copy of your post. :)

Like I said, I'm playing devil's advocate here. I use the MC IDE for 
lots of things. I see advantages to both, but I am not convinced the MC 
IDE is as good for very new users.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com