User Extensions/Externals

[J. Landman Gay]

Graham & Heather Harrison wrote:
> Jacque wrote:
>> Rev can't find the external. The "handler" it's missing is one of
>> the calls in the external library.
> 
> So since I put it where instructed, and where rev Preferences says to
> look, why is it "missing"?

You need to tell the stack to use it. Or, alternately, you need to set 
up the IDE to automatically use it. You can do the first by setting the 
externals property of the stack (the first lesson), you can do the 
second by setting up the IDE folder and loading structures (the second 
lesson.) Unless you plan to use this external in every stack, setting up 
for a single stack is good enough.

>> Externals are a little bit advanced. They aren't hard exactly but
>> I'm not sure I'd learn Rev with them. This may be something you
>> want to wait a while to tackle.
>> 
> I'm not looking to write externals at the moment. This one obviously
> provides some solutions to rev's shortcomings on Mac OS, so I would
> like to see what is handled. That way I can save myself a lot of
> frustration (f'ing and blinding about why doesn't that work) and toil
> (reinventing perfectly good wheels).

I didn't mean writing one, just using them. Externals are custom 
extensions to the language. When you're just starting out with Rev I 
figured using the native stuff first would be the best way to wrap your 
head around how things work in general before jumping into extra 
additions. But they aren't *that* hard, so if you want it, go for it.

>> On the other hand, if you're game, there are two lessons on the web
>> site that cover how to set up and work with a stack using
>> externals.
>> 
> 
> Does this mean that using an external is not just a case of putting
> it in the appropriate library and Voila!? In that case I will have to
> look at these lessons…

Right, they aren't automatic, they need to be specified. If you set the 
externals property of your stack using the correct file path to the 
external, it will load the next time the stack loads. If you want it 
available all the time for all stacks, then Trevor's lesson explains in 
good detail what you need to do to make it a part of the IDE. I don't 
generally go that far, since the very few externals I use are almost 
always exclusive to a particular stack. I usually put the external in 
the same working folder with my stack and point the stack's externals 
property to a relative file path.

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