Newbie Tangled Rev, a GLX2 Bug and Niggles

[gyroscope]

Hi, as I'm new to using Revolution, I thought I'd get these out of my system while I'm at this very early stage, if that's OK.

• Newbie Tangled Revolution

I seemed to have gotten Revolution confused when two or more independent stacks were open; I managed to freeze it quite a few times in the first few weeks. Although this might have been before I learned the simple task of closing the stack and removing from memory, rather than just closing it... but even then, I've frozen it after a RR restart, then opening multiple stack tutorials, myspace stacks, etc and closing stacks properly. In future, I'd be working on the one stack/subs at a time so it won't be a problem, but as I said earlier, get these things out of my system early on...

Copy and paste between different object scripts or different stack scripts hasn't always worked (using GLX2) i.e won't allow me to paste, but this might have been due to the above, I guess, where I've managed to tangle Rev.


• A GLX2 Bug

If you have invisible objects on your card and then use View > Show Invisibles, it seems to freak out GLX2. The word Compile becomes garbage and a button labelled GLX2 Backscript appears. The GLX2 script editor becomes frozen; Rev's built-in script editor seems to work OK still though, so I'm pretty much certain the bug lives in GLX2. If anyone could confirm this, I guess its better to let Daniels & Mara know about this?

I guess I'll mention this as well; not a bug as such, more of a discrepency.
When resizing a player object and moving forward or back to another card, when going back to the card, the player reverts to its default size. Locking its size and position does the trick of course but then this is the only object that needs nailing down like this, if its size has changed from its default size. I'm not being petty here, just thought I'd point it out, honest!


• Annoyances and/or Niggles

There doesn't seem to be a right-across-the-board indent system in GLX2 for scripted lines, particularly noticeable in if...then...else statements. I got used to that in Lingo, and found the multi indenting system helpful to make scripts look clearer (and more elegant to the eye, I suppose). (I would add here though that I think GLX2 is excellent).

If a substack is opened and then closed without any change, a dialog box still sometimes appears asking if you want to save.

The asterisk and card number in the card/window bar. For the first few weeks of using RR, the asterisk annoyed me, mainly because I couldn't get rid of it even for test standalone apps. Then I worked out that if you name the label, the asterisk and card number no longer appear. So this was a niggle, but a niggle no longer, and I'm friends with the asterisk again...

OK, got those off my chest!

[BvG]

Rev has way too many inconsistencies and strange behaviours for my taste too.

Freezing and/or Crashes should not happen, and I seldom have problems. It seems as if you weren't able to narrow it down to a single cause, but if you ever do, the RunRev folks will be very glad if you enter a easy reproducible bug in the quality center thingy.

As for GLX stuff, you're right. They have a dedicated support mailing list I think (don't use it myself), so just send them a mail. I suggest to also mention the copy paste issue.

Intending in the rev script editor is done by pressing the tab key, maybe it's the same in GLX? Maybe I also misunderstood the issue, I'm not sure what you mean with "multiple intending system"

Stacks are marked as "dirty" by the IDE whenever you click on them (and some other cases), mostly because any button click could change many things, and they don't have a way to know what action results in what reaction. Basically this is a problem birthed by the way rev works in regards to the "no compilation, everything is run mode" philosophy.

I always thought the asterix is silly, but I hear the HyperCard survivors would throw themselves with a catapult at RunRev's office building, if that'd be removed

[gyroscope]

Hi BvG, thank you for your reply.

If I do come across a reproducible bug, I'll certainly take up your suggestion and send it to the quality centre. I've got my fingers crossed though, that by using Rev 2.9, where the code writers have spent a long time playing Whack-a-Bug, I won't encounter many, if any at all, fingers crossed!

I'll email Daniels and Mara about the GLX2 bugs.

I'm not sure what you mean with "multiple intending system"

Urm ,nor am I really! Well I do sort of, it was my clumsy expression to describe one indent, then the next line a further indent, and so on, particularly for "if" stuff.

Example script bit (fullstops to simulate tab space as forum postings don't seem to support tabbing (I learn something new every day!))
...
.else
....if gPos>0 then
..... put temp into gGoodList
..... SoundByte "Bink3.AIF"
....end if
.end if
...

I've just looked at other people's scripts and they are fine with indenting; perhaps I have to press tab to indent the lines myself rather than expecting GLX2 to do that when the script is compiled; or it does it sometimes and not at other times; or I've been working past midnight too many times and confused myself... anyhow, a lot of explanation here about something which is probably OK anyhow... I leave that subject now!

Ah, so the asterisk in the window bar is a Hypercard old-timer...

[keyless]

When I first started with rev i was always trying to get the indenting right with if an else. I gave up and now I just try and get it the best I can and then use Format This Handler after and it straightens it out.

[gyroscope]

Thanks for that info keyless, I'll give that a whirl.

[malte]

Hi,

in glx, what happens if you choose
script->format all handlers from the menubar?

Most of the time that works for me. BvG is right, hitting TAB key inside a handler should pretty print it (if not turned off in the preferences)

For the garbage you see, when you choose show invisible objects, well that is exactly what you asked the IDE for. Glx is a stack, it has invisible objects, Rev shows them

Hope that sheds some light.

All the best,
Malte

[gyroscope]

Hi malte

Format All Handlers: yes, just the ticket, thanks! I would have thought that everyone would have wanted formatted scripts and so it would have been part of the compile, perhaps not then...

You've certainly shed some light on GLX2 and Shows Invisibles, I understand what's going on now. Still, I would have thought that with such a strong partnership between Rev and GLX, the code would accomodate "Hey, we're close buddies and even though your a stack plugin, I'll pretend you're part of my engine"!

Thank you for your help.