Updating Text-Script Only Stacks in Run-Time, Message Path Memory

[Ralph DiMola]

Richard,

Thanks for the pithy explanation! I think the most import thing for the
developer's design philosophy in your narrative is:

"This may be useful for allowing ephemeral data to be bound to such a stack
at runtime, safely refreshed with each session by virtue of never having
been saved at all."

Ralph DiMola
IT Director
Evergreen Information Services
rdimola at evergreeninfo.net


-----Original Message-----
From: use-livecode [mailto:use-livecode-bounces at lists.runrev.com] On Behalf
Of Richard Gaskin
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2016 11:25 AM
To: use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
Subject: Re: Updating Text-Script Only Stacks in Run-Time, Message Path
Memory

Mark Waddingham wrote:

 > The point here is that the purpose of script-only stackfiles is  > purely
that of storage - storage in a form which means they work  > well with
version control such as git.

This can't be stressed enough.

The only difference between script-only stacks and traditional binary stacks
is what's stored when saving.

As the term makes explicit, with a script-only stack the only thing that
gets saved is the stack script.

In every other way they are identical. Indeed, as far as I can tell once
they're loaded they are indeed the exact same structure in memory as any
other stack.

And like any stack, as long as they're in memory you can do anything you
like with them, even adding cuatom props or substacks.

But when you save, only the script will be preserved, as the name tries to
make clear.

This may be useful for allowing ephemeral data to be bound to such a stack
at runtime, safely refreshed with each session by virtue of never having
been saved at all.

And of course if you need persistence with such additions, just use a
traditional binary stack.

Conversations about script-only stacks have been much more complex than the
subject itself.

If it helps, there is only one rule to remember:

    A stack object is a stack object; the only difference
    with a script-only stack is that only the stack script
    is saved to disk.

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

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