Subject: Re: LC and OneSignal

[Alex Tweedly]

On 01/09/2017 22:44, AndyP via use-livecode wrote:
> Enhancement Requests added to the Quality Center for Sample Stacks
>
>
Good ideas !

But I think there are a few more things that need to be done to make 
this more useful. If I was sure enough about them, I'd just add as 
enhancement requests - but I'm not yet. So I'll mention them here, and 
then put in requests based on, or incorporating, any suggestions.

A.  Currently the top level taxonomy is
     Stack vs External (there are none of them) or Code sample.

That's a detail :-)     I think it should be something more like

1. Example of how to use some LC feature
2. Library of useful code
3. Sample to use/show off a library in cat 2 above.
4. Useful or interesting or fun app

B. I've downloaded and used a number of useful sample stacks, and always 
found it a bit of a drag dealing with the binary stack format, and then 
the 'unraveling' of that to extract just the library or part that I 
want. So first I'd encourage anyone offering something that (even 
vaguely) resembles a library to put it into a script-only stack, and 
then make a *separate* sample to show how it can be used.

C. <Hobbyhorse> I'd like a recommendation / convention that such samples 
(at least libraries) should be explicit-variable-safe. </hobbyhorse>

D. I'd like to see a better standardisation / convention on documenting 
libraries and parameters. Doesn't need to be required - but if there was 
a single suggested or recommended format (and perhaps associated tools) 
then it would probably be an easy choice. [I do vaguely remember 
something called 'revdocs' (?) - maybe from Andre - but Google couldn't 
find it for me when I was looking for it. ]

E. I'd suggest a standardised, predictable naming format such that these 
sample can be downloaded directly. In particular, I'd like to be able to 
say in my sample stack (type 3 above), something like

    start using stack URL 
(http://livecodeshare.runrev.com/..../mylib.livecodescript")

so it's easy to use the sample stacks.

Though what I really want is :

F. Maybe even better if there were an automatic way to "require" 
libraries, have them downloaded if needed to somewhere like   ~/My 
LIvecode/SampleLibraries/, etc.

G. Both the in-IDE and web version should have *much* less dependency on 
screentshots. I want an efficient list of sample stacks and libraries, 
not a slow-loading set of tiny pitcures that give me little idea of 
whether or not it's useful or interesting to me. We don't all have fast 
broadband all the time.

H. Fix the "Search" box in the IDE. I don't know what it searches - If 
you select "ImageData", you get 8 results. If you then search for 
"Image" you get 7 results (but not in the same order as the 8 were 
before the search??). If you search for "imag" you get none. And in any 
case, why is it a "type and click go" search rather than a "search as 
you type" ?   And - should it not "empty" the search filter when you 
change category ?

I. Fix the Categories.
   Example and Examples ?
   Awesome ??
   And are they in any particular order ? Or searchable ?  Or could they 
be grouped somehow ?

J. Rules for Tags. e.g. one sample is tagged "Android" - but the text 
simply says "Not yet tested on Android - if you test it and it works, 
please let me know).

OK - almost enough ranting for a Friday evening :-)   One last 
contentious one.

K. 'LC Approved' category or status.
It would be nice if there were some level or kind of "approved" status, 
so that you could have high(er) expectations of quality, usefulness, etc.

-- Alex.