Control? Object?

[Mark Schonewille]

Hi Richmond,

The LiveCode documentation consistently talks about objects, where this 
should be controls. The scripting language, however, mixes up the two 
concepts completely.

An object is a collection of properties and instructions defined by a 
programming syntax (where one shouldn't limit "programming syntax" to 
the traditional text listings but also include "syntax" created by 
visual programming environments).

A control is an often visual component of an interface, which allows the 
user to interact with the program, such as a button, a field and a slider.

Objects can create controls, but objects may also perform other tasks, 
such as saving data to disk, creating arrays, moving a control, and many 
other tasks.

In my book, I consistently distinguish objects and controls. This means 
that I almost always talk about controls and very rarely about objects, 
because it isn't really necessary to use objects in the LiveCode 
scripting language and AFAIK there is no "create object" command in the 
LiveCode language  (but if you really want to, you can simulate objects).

It is interesting that LiveCode (I'm working with 6.7.6 today) doesn't 
have an "object" keyword but does have a "control" keyword, while many 
functions, commands and messages contain either the string "control" or 
the string "object".

It is clear that LiveCode hasn't matured well enough to deal with this 
issue. I would recommend using above definitions consistently. One day, 
real objects will be introduced into the LiveCode scripting language and 
we will need to distinguish them from controls.

Kind regards,

Mark Schonewille
http://economy-x-talk.com
https://www.facebook.com/marksch

Buy the most extensive book on the
LiveCode language:
http://livecodebeginner.economy-x-talk.com

Op 19-Jun-16 om 09:19 schreef Richmond:
> I am currently teaching some children Livecode programming and ran into
> some difficulty
> on Friday when a child asked me why the menus were full of the word
> "Control"
> when I had been talking about "Objects".
>
> Well?
>
> How about changing every use of the word "Control" to "Object"?
>
> Enhancement Request 17879
>
> Richmond.
>
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