LC 8 Property Inspector

[Geoff Canyon]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 4:14 AM, Mark Waddingham <mark at livecode.com> wrote:

> On 2015-10-13 17:35, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>
>>
<snip>


> I see no harm in encouraging people to just continue doing what
>> they've been enjoying for decades:  making tools to help their work
>> and sharing them with others.
>>
>
> Indeed - there is no harm at all - it is actually quite important. I
> wasn't implying that it shouldn't be encouraged...
>
> All of the tools I've referred to - Mark Weider's, Bjornke's, Geoff's,
>> Peter's, and others' - exist.  Why not have more?  Why not have a
>> convenient launcher for them?
>>
>
> Great - how do you ensure that Mark's tools don't interfere with Geoff's
> so users can use them side-by-side?
>
> If every toolmaker has to take into account every other toolmaker's 'way
> of doing things' you end up with a situation where one individual who wants
> to write a tool needs to learn about everybody else's if they want to
> distribute it for the benefit of all.


I've never found this to be the case. I have never had someone report a bug
to me because some other tool interfered with Navigator, or because
Navigator tripped up someone else's tool.


> Indeed - advocacy and implementation are two entirely separate things
> though - which is perhaps why no such widespread 'lightweight IDE system'
> has appeared (to my knowledge at least).
>
> And there is one salient aspect: neither of us is describing an IDE
>> that exists today.
>>
>
> I cannot agree there. You may be describing an IDE which does not exist
> today - some sort of mystical entity which will just appear naturally out
> of a lot of people playing around in a sandpit. Unfortunately, I don't have
> much confidence in chaos producing anything in any particularly useful
> timeframe (the mathematician in me screams that the numbers just don't add
> up in that regard).
>

I think Navigator is useful. I've used it in place of everything except the
script editor and the dictionary for over ten years.

Let a thousand flowers bloom.
>>
>
> Indeed - a thousand flowers blooming can be a truly breathtaking sight.
>
> However, it is much less amazing if those thousand flowers are dotted
> around the world individually, not being able to be brought together
> because they cannot co-exist within the same climate, or in the same soil.


Again, unless I'm misunderstanding you, this isn't accurate -- Navigator
happily co-exists with every tool I know.