Is there a tutorial for Property Inspector, Standalone window and message box menubar?

[Frank D. Engel, Jr.]

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Another thing that would help here:

In HyperCard, some of the more rudimentary actions that a button could 
have (go to card, play a sound, etc.) could be accessed through the 
button's properties, without needing to write any scripts.  This is 
likely one of the reasons why they could get away with a tutorial 
manual that did not really include much on scripting.  Rev lacks such a 
feature.

How about a Property Inspector pane called "Action" (or something 
similar) being added for buttons, and giving some of these same 
capabilities?  That would make life a bit easier in terms of writing 
such a tutorial, and would also serve to make Rev a bit more 
"kid-friendly" -- it should'nt be hard to do either, selections from 
that pane could set properties of the button which would be examined by 
a mouseUp handler in a backscript or in the engine.  A mouseUp handler 
in the script itself could override, or even supplement by passing the 
message after performing its own actions.

For example, a backscript might contain something like this (untested):

on mouseUp
   if "playSound" is among the customKeys of the target then
     play the playSound of the target
   end if

   if "goCard" is among the customKeys of the target then
     put the goCard of the target into cn
     if cn is "next" then go to next card
     else if cn is "previous" then go to previous card
     else if cn is "first" then go to first card
     else if cn is "last" then go to last card
     else if char 1 of cn is "." then go to card (char 2 to -1 of cn)
   end if

   if "goStack" is among the customKeys of the target then go to stack 
the goStack of the target
end mouseUp


I've been tempted for some time now to try creating such a beast 
myself, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

On Mar 24, 2005, at 7:02 AM, Stgoldberg at aol.com wrote:

> Back in the first days of HyperCard, for those who remember it in the 
> late
> '80s, the very first manual contained very little about scripting, but 
> contained
> a very useful walkthrough of HyperCard's other features.   This was 
> followed
> by the excellent books by Danny Goodman and Dan Shafer describing the
> scripting in great detail. (I'm especially delighted to get a note 
> from Dan Shafer in
> response to my message as his book was so influential back then).   I 
> think I
> would not have gotten involved with Revolution, though, without having 
> that
> previous experience with HyperCard, since the program seems to presume
> significant prior knowledge on the part of the user.   Dan Goodman's 
> new book should
> help, but there is more that is needed, apart from scripting. The most 
> obvious
> thing is the Property Inspector for which there does not appear to be 
> any
> tutorial.   I found out quite by chance that by holding the mouse over 
> some of the
> categories in the property inspector one gets the Revolution command 
> which
> indirectly gives a clue as to what the item in the Property Inspector 
> does.   How
> the Property Inspector works should be basic knowledge provided with 
> the
> Revolution program.   Also, since receiving the help of one reader of 
> this forum,
> I found out that it is indeed possible for a standalone program to 
> save data
> through checking the right category in the Standalone window, 
> something I did
> not find in the documentation.   Revolution is a remarkable program, 
> but it is
> going to steer away potential new users if it does not include the 
> basic
> documentation.   The "About" and "How To" sections of the User Guide 
> are very
> helpful, but they are not organized in a way that enables easy access 
> to the
> information, or learning it for the first time; there is no Index to 
> the manual.
> (By the way, I am the editor and president   of a medical book 
> publishing
> company, MedMaster Inc, www.medmaster.net, and am used to seeing book 
> submissions
> all the time.   It is vital that a book provide the reader not just 
> with
> isolated details but with a broad overall understanding of the 
> concepts).   I hope
> to use Revolution as a substitute for the now discontinued mTropolis in
> programming our CDs.   It is a terrific program with great power, but 
> simply needs
> more basic documentation.
> Steve Goldberg
> President, MedMaster publishing co.
> www.medmaster.net
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>
>
- -----------------------------------------------------------
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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