Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvm!sas102
From: SAS102@psuvm.psu.edu (Steven A. Schrader)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: New feature for 2.1 wanted (Clean solution you say?)
Message-ID: <90284.080451SAS102@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 11 Oct 90 12:04:51 GMT
References: <10614@goofy.Apple.COM> <98061@cc.utah.edu>
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 43

In article <98061@cc.utah.edu>, TJACOBS@cc.utah.edu says:
>
>In article <10614@goofy.Apple.COM>, maller@applelink@apple.com (Steve Maller)
>writes:
>> References:<2106@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> <21064@well.sf.ca.us>
>>
>> In article <21064@well.sf.ca.us> via@well.sf.ca.us (Tony Cecala) writes:
>>> I agree completely that row/column functionality should be added
>>> to HyperCard fields.
>>
>> This is a highly-requested feature, but one that would be much trickier
>> than you think from HyperTalk's point of view. Everything inside of
>> HyperCard can be referred to as plain text (fields, properties, variables,
>> chunks, etc...). If you implement a spreadsheet-type field, how will you
>> refer to parts of it? In a way that is smooth from one variable type to
>> another.
>>
>> We argued about this feature (and arrays, too) and decided that it would
>> be too much of a kludge in the native HyperTalk lexicon. Maybe someday if
>> we can figure a *clean* way of doing it...
>>
>> Steve Maller
>> HyperCard Engineering Team
>> Apple Computer
>> -------------
>> I speak solely for myself in these matters
>
>HyperTalk already understands "items" and "lines". Couldn't "rows" and
>"columns" just be an alias for items and lines? Then what you need is is

Alternatively, you could add in a tab character, and define a row as a tab
delimited text, much as an item delimited text is an item. I know that this
is not strictly, ASCII here, but If I want to print on the Laser my items
will not line up if I use spaces (which would be an alternate way of doing
things).

The tab will also help to indent paragraphs of text. Since Apple extended ASCII
supports the TAB why can;t it be added to HyperTalk?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
         Steven A.  Schrader (SAS102 @ Psuvm.Bitnet)
         Student Consultant Coordinater
         Student Support Initiative, The Center for Academic Computing
         The Pennsylvania State University