Using the Transcript Dictionary in MC

[Wilhelm Sanke]

Richard (Richard Gaskin <ambassador at fourthworld.com>) wrote on  Sun, 07
Sep 2003:


> Jeanne's docs are wonderful, but rely on a backscript library to run.  Since
> the MC IDE will be open source and the Rev docs are governed by copyright, I
> don't think it would be wise to bank on including the revDocs library nor
> the Transcript Dictionary itself in the MC IDE.
>
I am not familiar with the specifics of copyright, but as you propose to
use the Transcript Dictionary anyway (see below in your post)  it seems
to be an issue how the Rev team would support - or at least tolerate -
the idea to make the Dictionary accessible from within the  Metacard IDE



> Forgive my poor memory, but if recall someone here interested in taking on
> the task of making the Rev docs openable within MC.  If you're still up for
> it, itseems this is what it would take:
>
What you recall may be my post "Rev Documentation in Metacard" of August
27th.

> - A preference item must be built to store the path to the Rev Transcript
> Dictionary.
>
> - The "MetaTalk Reference item would read "Transcript Dictionary" when that
> option is chosen and the path set in prefs.
>
> - Routines would need to be added to the backscript currntly in btn "newobj"
> os stack "MetaCard Menu Bar" to provide any support the Transcript
> Dictionary expects to be present.
>
> Is this too complex?  To simplistic?  Are there any other docs that should
> be available?  Personally I only rely on the Dictionary, but I could be
> overlooking something....
>
> -- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation Developer of WebMerge: Publish any database on any Web site
>
>

My approach was somewhat different:

In my post of Aug 27th I had described first steps to use the Transcript
Dictionary with Metacard. In the meantime I have added more steps and
now have a version of the Dictionary that can be opened from an item
"Transcript Dictionary" in the "Help" menu of the Metacard Menu Bar.

If the Rev team abstains from complicating further the "entanglement" of
the Rev Documentation (meaning for example to shift the scripts and
objects needed in the Dictionary from several remote stacks to other
remote stacks etc.) the routine to prepare the Transcript Dictionary for
use with the Metacard IDE  would not take too much time when an updated
version would have to be newly integrated.

I will not go into details here (again: see my post of August 27th); the
most important step is to put the scripts of the RevDocsLibrary from
stack "revdocs" into the frontscript of the Transcript Dictionary - via
the preopenstack handler.

Open questions:

- If we want to use btn "Switch View" for the simplified reference,
stack "revquickreference" must be included as a substack

- If we want to access the "Glossary" - from the yellow highlighted
portions of the text - stack "revglossary" has to be included, too.

That would mean another 400 K for both stacks.

- Do we need the possibility to search the Dictionary in addition to the
"Find" field?

We could use here a modified version of my "Topsearch" stack (see Rev
User Contributions), but I am not necessarily keen on using my own
product here, there are probably other similar tools available from list
members.

Another option would be to take the card "Transcript Language
Dictionary" from the "revdocs" stack, modify it for use independent of
the revdocs stack and use this product of Jeanne de Voto along with the
Dictionary (I tried it, it works.).

The modified Transcript Dictionary stack for use within the Metacard IDE
(version 2.5.1B3)  - and the modified Metacard Menu Bar - is available
here, tested so far on Windows.

As I will be on my way to an outside meeting tomorrow  I cannot respond
to posts again before Friday.

Regards,

Wilhelm Sanke