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From: Jim.Russell@f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Jim Russell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Reports 2.0
Message-ID: <3670.27C8464D@blkcat.fidonet.org>
Date: 24 Feb 91 17:09:18 GMT
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The Reports 2.0 interface has been improved substantially.  The Reports
card is gone*, and has been replaced with an icon that presents a
palette that is used to select, update, and run reports, and even lets
the user navigate the cards that were selected for the report.  The
Nine To Five folks blamed the Reports card approach on Activision, and
they included the Reports button in version 1.2.2 that was much better.
(Use the script from that button as a model if you want to run reports
in the earlier versions without bothering with the Reports card.)
 
*The first thing you want to do when you convert a stack to HV 2.0 and
Reports 2.0 is to get rid of the reports card -- trying to run a 1.2.2
report on a stack converted to 2.0 is _very_ likely to corrupt and ruin
your stack!
 
It seems the NineToFive folks have provided enough hooks to ensure that
there is nothing (other than report definition) that you can't do
entirely from within scripts - the button and palette are never
required if you choose to not use them.
 
The only downsides that I have found so far are:
 1. You can no longer print the layout defnition.
 2. You can have only one report definition open at a time.
 3. The use of the debugger is not documented, and while you can use it
    (a _huge_ improvement over 1.2.2!) you do need to be careful to 
    close the script window before a rerun or your changes will not 
    take effect and you will drive yourself crazy wondering why your
    fixes seemed to have no effect.  I've gotten in to the habit (using
    a 9" screen, of always checking the menu to see if any other 
    windows are open before I rerun a report.
 4. Reports still appropriates the card script when it runs -- you can
    no longer execute any handlers at the card script level when you
    run, and if you are unlucky, you can lose your card script as you
    test and update.
I won't list all the improvements, but they are substantial.


--  

        Jim Russell, Jim.Russell@f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org
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