An Helping instrument for LIVECODE

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gepponline
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Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:53 pm

An Helping instrument for LIVECODE

Post by gepponline » Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:08 am

I'm a beginner and I can't understand if I use a different mind scheme or the liveCODE helping tools are structured in a way that I MUST mess around to find the answer to my needs..

Today, for example, I had an HTML table from a webpage and i need to convert it ina tabulated string to be placed on a table field in livecode.
My starting idea was to search "how to substitute HTML tags in a string" or "how to Find text in a string"

In the dictionary I found nothing helping searching for "find" or "find text"
So I wen to the web and after a few searches i found a "replace...in.." command that solved my "problem" and a "working with text" document that can help in some ways...
But this procedures was absolutely not friendly and it takes a long time..

I'm learning livecode enthusiastically and I'd like to have an helping tool that groups commands by generes.
I'm a LabVIEW programmer and in labview IDE there is a structure that i find very usefull and user friendly and could be nice to have a similar thing in livecode.


In the attached image, functions or command are grouped by type or by data they are working on.
So we have STRUCTURES (like loops repeat, for , while, if..then, etc etc)
Then we have ARRAYS with alla commands that can be done on arrays and for every group, command that can be used with them.
In this case I selected strings and so shown are all commands that can be used with strings, so i placed mouse over "array to spreadsheet" and as you can see in the context help, there is a short description of what that command does.

I'd like to have a similar tool in Livecode that, knowing what you are going to do, allow,all in a glance, to find the command that can be used to meet your needs.

What do you think about it?
Could it be usefull?Is it feasible? Does something similar already exits?
Attachments
labview commands.png

jacque
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Re: An Helping instrument for LIVECODE

Post by jacque » Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:08 pm

That's a nice layout. It would be possible to script something like that if anyone had the time, but it would be a fairly large undertaking.

For now we have something similar but less exact. The sidebar in dictionary gives you access to categories either by object or language constructs. For example, if you wanted control structures, there is an entry for those. If you click on an object, all the commands and functions that apply to that object are listed. You can then sort the list by type (click on the Type header) to see all functions, commands, and messages grouped together.

That gets you pretty close. You can also choose which dictionary columns to display, as there are many more than just what you see by default. Set those up permanently in LC preferences, or just choose them by right-clicking the header row.
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jacque at hyperactivesw dot com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com

gepponline
Posts: 91
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:53 pm

Re: An Helping instrument for LIVECODE

Post by gepponline » Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:50 am

The concept i know it's very similar,that's why i said that maybe it's my mind scheme that work differently...maybe the categories are to be improved...something like "Type of data".
..but mainly i think that what i miss most is how to operate on a string according to what you want to obtain...

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Re: An Helping instrument for LIVECODE

Post by FourthWorld » Tue Mar 31, 2015 3:56 pm

The "See Also" section of each Dictionary entry is very helpful. For example, if you search for "find" in the Dictionary, its See Also list includes "Replace".
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