A Revolution beginner seeks advice...

[Frank D. Engel, Jr.]

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On Feb 16, 2005, at 1:15 PM, Karen wrote:

> competition in Revolution, I need a script as simple as:
>
> get the htmlText of field "edtText"
> replace text of field "edtFind" with text of field "edtReplace" in it
> set the htmlText of field "edtText" to it

Or simpler:

set the htmlText of field "edtText" to the htmlText of field 
"edtReplace"

> applications).  I'm still playing around with the demo to try 
> converting
> some REALbasic apps to Revolution to get a feel for what it can and 
> can't
> do.

There's not really too much that Rev can't do, although there may be 
some things for which other languages / tools would be more 
appropriate.

> help with.  My main concern is learning the Revolution scripting 
> language,
> which seems quite a bit different to anything I'm used to.  Is there a
> shortcut to doing this - would the book "Software at the Speed of 
> Thought"
> be a help here?  Is it worth getting the printed manuals?  Am I best 
> just to
> rely on the various web resources?

Transcript is an "XTalk" dialect, derived from the HyperTalk language 
which Apple created for HyperCard.  It is quite different in some ways 
from other languages, and much more wordy, but you can do things with 
just a small number of statements which would be considerably more 
difficult in other languages.  Consider statements like:

if word 5 of line 12 of field "Field" contains "e" then
   answer "The fifth word of line 12 contains the letter 'e'"
end if

put URL "http://www.apple.com" into field "My Browser"

etc.


My understanding of the printed manuals is that they are basically 
printed versions of the online documentation already present in Rev.  
In the event that you need some portion of the docs for quick 
reference, you can just print the page(s) you need.  I have not read 
the book in question, but it has been given very good reviews on this 
list.

Transcript is not difficult to learn once you are familiar with the 
basics.  If you are already familiar with other programming languages 
(such as REALbasic), you might consider starting with the "Scripts and 
their structure" topic in the "Topics" area of the Rev documentation.  
Questions can be answered by this list, and the list has searchable 
archives as well.


> I also wonder about the "Update pack" - it seems pretty expensive, is 
> it
> worth buying?  Or am I best to wait until an update appears that I 
> really
> want and then take out a renewal?  Given that I've sunk a lot of money 
> into
> REALbasic, I'm keen to keep any new expenditure down!

The update pack gives you every upgrade released within a year of 
purchasing the upgrade pack, and is renewable.  It's up to you to 
decide if it is worthwhile, but be aware that numerous bugs in Rev are 
squashed with each version released lately, and that the updates are 
quite nice to have if you are doing any serious programming.

- -----------------------------------------------------------
Frank D. Engel, Jr.  <fde101 at fjrhome.net>

$ ln -s /usr/share/kjvbible /usr/manual
$ true | cat /usr/manual | grep "John 3:16"
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.
$
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