On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 5:37 PM, Bob Sneidar <[email protected]> wrote: > Let me propose that a solution cannot be simpler than the problem it is > meant to solve.
Assuming that this is true, it is nevertheless possible for a solution to be far, far more complex than the problem it is intended to solve. One quote representing this concept is: Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems. I'll go further than my original statement and say that *every* solution is far more complex than the problem it is intended to solve. HyperCard was no exception. If the "problem to be solved" is "build a rolodex" (and you're not allowed to simply use the built-in one) consider how much work went into the built-in rolodex. By comparison, my problem statement is nearly complete; add a few semi-obvious statements about searching, printing, etc., and you have a working product spec, but to implement that in HyperCard would take significant effort. Anyone know how many lines of code there are in the built-in rolodex stack? Every language I've used has some feature that I wish every other language I use has. As one example, in FileMaker, all references are abstracted, so if you rename a table, or a column, or a layout, etc., all references to that object in your code will automatically adjust. *That* is a feature I would pay serious money for, but I don't know any other language/environment that has it. Not to be a grump (warning, I'm about to be grumpy) but there are several aspects of LiveCode as it stands that are significantly more complex than they should be. The one that has been tormenting me over the last few weeks is the datagrid, and its lack of native syntax. put row 3 to 8 of column "firstname",column "lastname" or something like it should just work. Stepping away from the soap box now... _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
