Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!voder!pyramid!prls!mips!smsc.sony.com!dce From: dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard Subject: Re: HYPERCARD limitations, speed issue Message-ID: <1990Jan17.170739.4614@smsc.sony.com> Date: 17 Jan 90 17:07:39 GMT References: <614@ascom.UUCP> <37876@apple.Apple.COM> Reply-To: dce@Sony.COM (David Elliott) Organization: Sony Microsystems Corp. Lines: 28 In article jk3t+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jonathan King) writes: >send mouseuUp to button "pushMe" [Hypertalk Script Language Guide p. 74] > >where mouseUp is certainly *not* a string. This works because >"quotation marks around the message are not required if the message >is a single word." [HSLG p. 74] I assume that this "feature" was >designed to help out novice programmers write simple scripts, but the >only thing I have seen it do is frustrate the hell out people before >they finally figure out what is going on. And now, if you fixed the >"feature", everybody's scripts would break in weird places. I got caught by this one recently. I had a button named "Volume" and a global named "volume". I decided to change my ways and start all globals with upper-case letters (like I do in Unix programs). The next thing I knew, I was getting errors for statements like send "mouseUp" to button Volume Maybe there could be a "developer's mode" where syntax would be more strictly checked. That is, any time a parameter is a string, it must be quoted. This would be off by default, but could be turned on for a given stack by the developer. -- David Elliott dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce (408)944-4073 "Baziotes! Baziotes! Getcha red hot Baziotes here!"