Disappearing Tools Palette

[FourthWorld]

The LC Dictionary also available in a regular browser:
https://livecode.com/resources/api/

[richmond62]

That presupposes you always have internet access.

Last time I used things on a laptop on a train in England, there was no internet . . .

[richmond62]

Quite obviously there has been a vast change between the way the Dictionary has been
implemented between LC 8.1.10 and 9.6.3 because my stack that I ran up on my MacOS 10.7.5 machine
at work with the 'revDictionary' and the 'revDictionarySettings' stacks as substacks went wonky
when opened at home in LC 9.6.3 on MacOS 12.

Although, it does seem very odd that LC 8.2.0 DP 2 plays similar "silly buggers" with my stack.

[jacque]

The dictionary changed to use a datagrid, so you need all the extras that come with that.

[richmond62]

Thank you for that useful information.

[FourthWorld]

The dictionary changed to use a datagrid, so you need all the extras that come with that.

I thought the Dictionary was revised to use all web tech. What part uses the DataGrid?

[jacque]

I thought the Dictionary was revised to use all web tech. What part uses the DataGrid?

Do you mean the HTML files? Those are still there. At any rate, I heard it had transitioned to a datagrid somewhere on the mailing list several versions ago. I assume the datagrid is probably the top list of commands and functions. The bottom area displays the selected HTML file. But then, I always believe everything I read...

[richmond62]

LC 9.6.3 Dictionary:
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SShot 2022-05-14 at 18.19.17.png (12.96 KiB) Viewed 3468 times

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Your mileage may differ.

A standalone built from this stacks works perfectly on MacOS 12.

[stam]

Thanks Richmond...

If you want to stick with using an LC stack for this, another option is to use the tools James Hale has shared on Sample Stacks:

Make Docset converts the Dictionary for the version you are using to a Dash Docset: https://livecodeshare.runrev.com/stack/845/Make-DocSet
It's an easy way to generate a Dash docset for any version that may come out in the future (i've used this to add LC 10 to Dash as James' official version is lagging behind a bit).

You don't need Dash to use this - you can use James' Docset Reader, also available on Sample Stacks: https://livecodeshare.runrev.com/stack/ ... set-Reader

[FourthWorld]

Wikipedia has no info on Dash. Is it a standard? Where is it defined?

[stam]

Wikipedia has no info on Dash. Is it a standard? Where is it defined?

Dash is not a “standard” but it’s an extremely well designed API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager for Mac.
https://kapeli.com/dash

As far as I can tell the docset is a bundle in HTML+SQLite based format, the app itself is a blazing my fast database app which also allows you to sub-search APIs (useful for huge ones like Data Grid), which dictionary does not support. It also lets you annotate documentation (another missing feature in Dictionary) and includes a great snippet manager.

It supports well over 200 languages and does this very well. Even languages like Xojo are officially supported. Sadly, unlike Xojo, LiveCode is not on the official list (requires action from LiveCode Ltd for this).
In addition it will provide access to user-supported documentation and James Hale has very kindly done this for LiveCode (ie within the app you can download and install James’ docset).

It does support documentation from a bewildering number of sources - see here: https://kapeli.com/docsets

James has done excellent work by extracting all the different sources of documentation included in the dictionary to a single bundle with his make docset stack.

Dash is a paid app on Mac but it’s docsets are free. You can use these with Zeal (free on win/Linux) and Velocity (free nagware on windows) so accessible on all platforms

[stam]

Actually looking into this further, all a dash docset is is a folder that contains well-formatted HTML pages with an SQLite db that indexes them.
The app supports about 75 entry types, listed here: https://kapeli.com/docsets#supportedentrytypes

A more detailed feature list:

Documentation Browser
200+ offline docsets
Instant, fuzzy search
Great integration with other apps
Easily download docsets
Easily generate docsets:
Supports Swift / Objective-C docsets
Supports Doxygen docsets
Supports Python / Sphinx docsets
Supports Ruby / Yard docsets
Supports Javadoc docsets
Supports Scaladoc docsets
Supports GoDoc docsets
Supports Elixir / HexDoc docsets
Supports DartDoc docsets
Supports Haskell / Haddock docsets
Supports JSDoc docsets
Supports Rust Cargo docsets
Supports Any HTML docsets
Easily switch between docsets:
Smart search profiles
Docset keywords
Documentation bookmarks
Convenient, filterable table of contents
Highlighted in-page search

Snippet Manager
Store snippets of code
Easily reuse snippets
Expand snippets in any app
Organize snippets with tags
Syntax highlighting
Variable placeholders
Special placeholders:
@clipboard
@cursor
@date
@time

Other Features
Full-text search
Keyboard shortcuts
Tab restoration
Docset playgrounds
Show/hide dock icon
Show/hide menu icon
Dark mode

[richmond62]

My fairly goofy stack is NOT intended as anything more than the built-in
LIveCode Documentation; all it is intended to be is a way of making it possible,
using a standalone hived off from it, to be able to access the LC Documentation
on a different virtual desktop to the IDE.

Personally I would never use it as I either develop on a Mac Mini with 3 monitors
(and I tend to 'park' the LC Documentation semi-permanently on my right-hand monitor,
have the revMenuBar stack on the central monitor, and the revTools stack on the
left-hand monitor), or on an ACER laptop running Xubuntu with a television connected
via an HDMI cable as my main monitor, with the LC Documentation parked on the
laptop's built-in monitor.

[jameshale]

Jusr a further note on Dash.
I looked at Dash at a time when the APi page on LC’s website was not tablet friendly. The javascript behind the interface couldn’t handle touch events properly. Given I use my iPad for many things such as reading mail and forum posts I wanted to be able to search the documentation from my iPad.
At the time Kapelli also made an iOS version of Dash that was free. Looking at the docs on his website I could see it was possible to make your own docsets. A good exercise I thought.
Hence the Docset maker stack on LC share.
After a bit of fiddling with github during our opensource period I chose to upload the docset to the user contributions site.
(I will be updating that docset soon.)
Unfortunately Kapelli decided to no longer support or update the free iOS version. What was there still works though.
Anyway the mothership’s web API is now tablet friendly (yay!)
The Docset reader sample stack on LC share was the beginning of an attempt to make a reader for other platforms, my ultimate aim being for Android) but as my building for Android experience was basically non existent it remans just a basic reader to the docset for desktops. There is an opening there if anyone wants to make it Android deployable, I am not aware of any other still available Android docset readers that accept user contributions.
I still use Dash myself, as @stam has mentioned it has a wealth of other docsets which I find quite useful from time to time and it intergrates well with other apps. E.g. I might be editing something in BBEDIT and I can look up something in Dash from within BBEDIT. The grep cheat sheet available in Dash is also something I use from time to time.
The docset reader stack grabs the Docs from within LC, converts the pdfs into html, extracts the documentation from the extensions and packages them together with as @stam mentioned a SQLITE db of keywords (for the API) only. Anyway I have found both Dash and its creator most helpful in my “work” with LC.

[Monox18]

The LC Dictionary also available in a regular browser:
https://livecode.com/resources/api/

That's a very lovely resource. Is there any way to know which LC version is that dictionary targeted from, I assume latest LC 10 DP? Anyhow I prefer to use Milby's online dictionary. https://milby.us/lc/docs/api.html. Seems to load faster, with less overhead and more focused. The downside is that he doens't update it too often. I messaged him couple months ago to update the dictionary, which he did, that was great. I think the version is around LC 9.6.5.

and coming back to the current thread, is there a way to hide the Tools Palette by script? What's the tool's palette stack name, I would like to try hiding it. Working in Windows on a laptop, with all these palettes, really 30% of the screen is gone as written by others. To be efficient I have been utilizing useful LC shortcuts, so I can hide some palettes. https://livecode.byu.edu/helps/shortcuts.php

Edit:
nvm, I fount it !!

Code: Select all

hide stack "revtools"