Writing with standalones

[J. Landman Gay]

On 3/1/03 8:14 PM, Ken Norris wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
> OK, I'm ready to figure this out for real. I think an HC standalone will
> save new cards to itself automatically, but what do I do if I want to save
> new cards to a Rev standalone?
> 
> On the Mac, I would just make a stack in the same folder operable by the
> standalone, add new cards to it and save it from the standalone. This
> assumes the Rev engine is in the standalone and, though it can't read and
> write to itself, I guess it can read and write to the other one.

Right. This would work the same way in Rev. You can make a standalone to 
run the whole business, and a separate data stack that the standalone 
can save data to.

> Should the other stack be a substack? Can I read and write to a substack,
> (which will be in the same folder, right?)?

No. The rule is that an application can't save to its own file. A 
substack would be in the same file on disk as the standalone app, so you 
wouldn't be able to save to it. You need a separate stack on disk if you 
want to save data.

> Anyway, now I remember reading that you can't do that with Windows (put the
> save data stack into the same folder). I have no clue why that would be so.
> It's normal on a Mac to put data, images, plugins, etc. into the same folder
> as the app, so the app doesn't have to go on a search mission for it's
> normally-used files.

This is a little off. The rule is that applications can't save to 
themselves -- the actual standalone file on disk cannot be altered after 
it is compiled, and therefore any new data must be saved in another, 
separate file. Other files in the same folder are fine. You can set up 
the same folder structure you normally do.

> So what, exactly, would be the "normal" procedure for Windows. Where should
> I put the folder that contains data stacks and image files?

Everything can go in one folder, or in any folder grouping you want. It 
is also normal on Windows for all related files to be grouped together 
in the same directory.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com