nuther new newbie nuisance

[Slava Paperno]

Tim,

I may be misreading your plan, or some of its details, but if I were to
design what I think you are designing, I would not want to put a lot of
images on scrolling backgrounds. I would use a database, like SQLite, and
create a record for each item in your collection of data. If one item of
your data is a set of related image(s), sound recording(s), the name, some
text, or maybe a few different types of texts, then that would be one
database record with a field for each piece of data. One database record per
species, or one per subspecies, or whatever makes sense in your
classification.

Once you've established a database and a set of scripts to create a record,
delete a record, edit a record, and retrieve/search for a record, you will
have very little difficulty building your collection and dealing with the
data no matter how few or how many records you put into it.

Instead of scrolling through a dozen images, you will be able to retrieve
and display them in an organized fashion--one at a time, or two at a time,
or whatever, each with its associated sound, text, etc. Once the database is
established, revising the interface will be a breeze because changing your
interface will not involve changing the data. You'll be able to easily
experiment with the presentation of your data, because you will have solved
the principal part--the organization of data.

That's what I would do--but of course I may be missing some crucial points
in your idea.

Slava

> -----Original Message-----
> From: use-livecode-bounces at lists.runrev.com [mailto:use-livecode-
> bounces at lists.runrev.com] On Behalf Of Timothy Miller
> Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 2:13 AM
> To: How to use LiveCode
> Subject: nuther new newbie nuisance
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> I thought I knew how to do this, but it isn't working out.
> 
> I'm making a stack that will help me practice identifying birds. One
> card per species. Images and songs, mostly, plus a few fields for
> habitat, seasonality and so on. Some fields and buttons will be common
> to all cards, but most fields will not "share text." Each card will
> have different images.
> 
> Chances are I will gradually add fancy bells and whistles. I'll want to
> hide the name of the species, for instance, forcing myself to name the
> species by song or image, then show the name to see if I got it right.
> That sort of thing. I think I know how to do most of what I plan.
> 
> At the moment, I'm stuck on a basic problem, and I hope someone will
> help un-stick me.
> 
> I want to be able to make a new card, quickly and conveniently, type
> the name of the species into a field designated for that purpose, then
> paste several images onto the card -- as many as desired. The total
> area of the images will be quite a bit larger than the total area of
> the card, so I want the images to scroll vertically while retaining
> their positions, relative to each other. I don't mind dragging the new
> images to their desired locations manually.
> 
> There's something basic I'm not getting.
> 
> I thought if I pasted several images onto a card, scroll bars would
> magically appear, which would scroll the images as a group. Not
> happening. Maybe backgrounds scroll but stacks and cards don't?
> 
> I made a scrolling group, pasted multiple pictures in it. That works on
> one card. But if I set bgBehavior to "true," then "new card" duplicates
> all the pictures, and the pictures are shared between cards. I want
> different pictures on each card. If I set bgBehavior to "false," making
> a new card becomes complicated.
> 
> (I'm a hyperCard retread, so setting bgBehavior to "false" don't come
> natchrel.)
> 
> I don't need detailed instructions or scripts. Just a few hints.
> 
> Maybe I need to make a scrolling stack with scrollbar buttons, which I
> would script as needed, instead of depending on the native scroll bars
> you get with a scrolling group? Hmm... In that case, I guess I'd need
> to place the scroll bars on each new card...
> 
> Maybe I need to place a different group on each new card with
> bgBehavior set to false? Maybe a "new card" button with a script that
> places a new group on the new card, sets its rect and size and other
> characteristics?
> 
> Maybe there's more than one way to do what I want... probably so...
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> 
> Tim
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> use-livecode mailing list
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your
> subscription preferences:
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode