David Bovill wrote:
If it quacks like a duck it is a duck.
So I have some data in a variable that I want to display. I can use is an
array/number/date - but for other types of data I'm wandering... xml should
be easy, but harder would be to distinguish long text files from binary. Any
ideas for hacks to distinguish:
1. images
2. sounds
3. video
4. binary blob
5. text
6. rtftext
7. utf8
I think a lot of these can be tested by trying them out in various
containers - ie can I create an image? What happens if I set the unicodetext
of a field... but some of the work needs to be done by looking at the data
first. So what would a duck_Type handler look like for LiveCode:
function duck_Type someData
switch
case someData is an array
return "array"
case someData is a date
return "date"
case someData is a number
return "number"
case ???
return "???"
end switch
end duck_Type
Note - the idea is to work on data in a variable, not a file. I have a few
handlers for looking at files - any suggestions / snippets of code?
If such metadata are needed for the variables, what would be the
downside of using an array? That way you could store/access the type
metadata quickly:
put tData into gMyDucksA["label"]["data"]
put "rtfText" into gMyDucksA["label"]["type"]
I realize that this is an obvious solution you've probably already
considered, but given the difficulties of imposing types and OOP
constructs in a typeless non-OOP language, for practical purposes such a
Lua-metatable-esque option may provide a reasonable balance between
performance and flexibility.
If an array is unsuitable for your needs I would be interested in
learning more about the problem being solved to see if there's an
efficient solution.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World
LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv
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