RTFText, HTMLText, and Formatted Content in RR

[Monte Goulding]

> My reluctant conclusion is that applications that rely heavily on
> richly formatted text are not a candidate for RR development. That's a
> HUGE disappointment but the good news is those aren't the only kinds of
> apps I'm interested in building.
>
> Back to the drawing board.
>
Hi Dan

It's true that it's very hard to import formatted text from other apps into
Rev. But that doesn't mean that Rev can't be used for app development that
relies on formatted text. I use my xmlText library to provide a style sheet.
Then I markup plain text in a very basic xml. This allows for changing the
style very simply. Even the user can change the styles.

The only thing lacking is a text editor that can apply the styles in an easy
way. I've been thinking about it but I can't work out how to relate the
selected chunk to the same chunk in the xmlText. I guess I could maintain a
list of chunks and associated text styles and then apply them all every time
the text is edited but that seems like overkill. I'm sure there's a way.
Perhaps if I also had a reference to where the chunk was in the xmlText it
would reduse the edit time load. I guess each chunk reference would still
need to be parsed the ensure there was no crossover and nesting issues were
sorted out. Perhaps if the chunk references were stored in order even these
issues could be resolved quickly.... Hmm... Starting to think out loud ;-)

It should also be noted that whilst Rev is poor at accepting RTFText from
other apps it does work well going the other way. Therefore a decent text
editor in rev could cover all bases. My suggestion would be to dedicate a
chapter in your book to the problem and development of a solution. I'd be
very happy for you to use xmlText as a component.

Cheers

Monte