Should "dispatch" be extended for timers?

[dunbarx at aol.com]

Richard.


When you say "send" is blocking, in what way? Is this really any different that calling any handler? For example:


on mouseUp
  doSomething
end mouseUp


on MouseUp
  send "doSomething" to this card
end mouseUp


Can you explain the difference?


Craig



-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Gaskin <ambassador at fourthworld.com>
To: use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>
Sent: Wed, Aug 27, 2014 10:18 am
Subject: Re: Should "dispatch" be extended for timers?


Peter Haworth wrote:

 > Sounds like a great idea to me.  I seem to remember that one of
 > dispatch/send is blocking and the other isn't. Could that be a
 > possible reason for the lack of "in" with dispatch?

Both are blocking when called immediately; "send" can become on-blocking 
by specifying a later time to send the message.


dunbarx wrote:

 > "Send' can, er, send parameters as well as a command. In a button
 > script:
 >
 > on mouseUp
 >    send "putArg" && random(99) && random(99)  && "XYZ" to me in 5
 > end mouseUp
 >
 > on putArg var
 >    put var
 > end putArg
 >
 > You get pairs of random numbers and the text as well. All parameters
 > come across as a batch.
 >
 > Or you can separate in the usual way:
 > on mouseUp
 >    send "putArg" && random(99) & "," & any char of "ABCD" to me in 5
 > end mouseUp
 >
 > on putArg var,var2
 >    put var2 --or the first one or both
 > end putArg

Yes, both "send" and "dispatch" allow passing arguments, but as we saw 
with yesterday's forum post it seems unintuitive to have to put quotes 
around things that aren't strings, making "dispatch" feel more natural.

Of course in a certain Zen sort of way even variable names are 
technically strings on some level, but having to quote them to pass them 
with "send" is something I see a lot of newcomers guess wrong.

FWIW I submitted a request to have "dispatch" extended with "in" for timers:

<http://quality.runrev.com/show_bug.cgi?id=13287>

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com

_______________________________________________
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