Ask for an answer...

[dunbarx at aol.com]

Jacques.


"Reply" and "Request" are both reserved words, but I get your point.


But what really are your concerns? It is true that the two commands, which were born in 1987, are similar, in that they are  both blocking, requiring user input to dismiss. One requires a choice among explicit answers, the other requires the user to type an answer, giving a much broader range for that answer.


They might be combined into a single compound command, I suppose. But apart from that, I do not see the ambiguity you mention. As for how they are described and from what point of view, I do not understand what you mean.


Craig Newman



-----Original Message-----
From: Jacques Hausser <jacques.hausser at unil.ch>
To: How to use LiveCode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>
Sent: Sat, Aug 3, 2013 5:59 pm
Subject: Ask for an answer...


It's perhaps not a brand new topic, but I floundered again, being confused with 
"ask" and "answer" commands, so I let off some stream.
I was always bothered - and I'm not the only one - by the semantic of these 
commands. In both cases, the script asks a question, and the user has to answer. 
But the "answer" command is viewed as an order to the user, when the ask command 
is viewed as a demand from the application. Two points of view for two commands 
which in fact have very similar meanings. It seems logical that these commands 
should be either described from the application's side or from the user's side, 
and not the actual mixture of both.
It would be (semantically) straightforward to change the meanings of the extand 
commands, but a nightmare to re-actualize old code. So, synonymizing (english?) 
only one of them, solutions could be:

1) if you prefer the point of view of the application:

"answer" could be replaced by "request"-- for a demand needing a yes-or-no 
answer
"ask" -- no change; for a demand requesting a more detailed answer, e.g. your 
birthday…

2) if you prefer the point of view of the user

"answer" -- no change; for a yes-or-no answer
"ask" could be replaced by "reply" -- with something more detailed.

I'm sure that most of you, native English speakers, could find better 
solutions…I'm looking forward for them !

Jacques





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