Wednesday's updates to beta image

Dan Ingalls DanI at wdi.disney.com
Wed May 20 23:58:12 UTC 1998


I have just released another spate of updates.  Note that one of them recompiles the interpreter classes, so it may look like it is hung for a few minutes.

*Test Pilots Wanted*
A major feature of this set of updates is that FileLists can now see FTP servers anywhere on the net.
    In the volume list menu: 
    fill in server info...	Gives you a form to register a new ftp server you want to use.
    open server...		Choose a server to connect to.
    local disk		Go back to looking at your local volume.
Goodies at UIUC and Create are already registered.  So are the Update servers (by default).

This work was done by Ted Kaehler.  The features below are still missing.  Anyone who thinks they could help in the next two days is invited to submit code or suggestions for...
[ ] Using a Proxy server to get out through a firewall.
    What is the convention for proxy servers with FTP?
[ ] Fill in the date and size info in the list of remote files.
    Allow sorting by it.  New smarts needed in (ServerDirectory
    fileNameFormattedFrom:sizePad:sortMode:).
[ ] Deleting a remote file.  See (ServerDirectory deleteFileNamed:).
[ ] Renaming a remote file.  See (ServerDirectory rename:toBe:).

Please report problems -- here or elsewhere in the FileList or Directory code.
(Note: If you are one of the users who needs to save an Update as a file on your local disk, in order to transfer it to another machine, it is now easy.  At the bottom of the "do.." menu are two items that let you do this.)

Also from Ted, a number of Swiki tweaks
and changes to the ChangeSorter

Virtual Machine addtions and changes from John:
  1.  Adds MIDI primitives
  2. Removes support for MIDI from SerialPorts (and prims)
  3. Image remembers if it was in fullScreen mode when saved
  4. Primitive support for deferred display updating"!
A first cut at making portions of the system easily removable.
    See the discardXXX methods in SystemDictionary>shrinking. Removes
    several usused classes
Changes to the C support files to support MIDI and having the
    image remember it's full-screen mode.
Also various fixes including:
  a. MorphicMenu addLine failed if if menu had no items
  b. MorphicMenu pop to front when activated
  c. menu in the ChangeSet name button now
     pops up in Morphic world without extra click
  d. added ChangeSorter>removeOldChangeSets utility
  e. Player costume dictionary no longer holds onto
     extra garbage; plugs a significant space leak
  f. Player class>freeUnreferencedSubclasses is a utility
     that attempts to delete unused Player subclasses. Does
     no yet work."

Numerous changes from Scott in the area of morphic scripting...
(1)  Smaller painting area enforced for making or editing drawings.
(2)  If you edit a script textually, its scriptor no longer will accept tile droppings.  You can restore the tile-scripted version via the "revert to tile version..." command.  Generally, the items in a Scriptor's main menu will reflect the status of the script (anonymous, named-and-tile-scripted, or named-and-textually-scripted.)
(3)  Added a mechanism that lets balloon text strings be shared, and used that to add balloon help to various pieces of the Viewer.
(4)  Fixed two *horrible* inefficiencies (of my making) relating to naming objects and to finding a morph's "reference playfield", which really slowed down dragging an object when its viewer was up.
Also:
*  When you remove a script that was set up to be run from an event handler, the event handler is now patched appropriately.
*  The "paste morph" feature no longer drops into debugger if there's nothing to paste.
*  Made the "info buttons" next to slots in the viewer put up appropriate balloon help.
*  Removed "keyStroke" from the "when-to-run" choices (not yet ready to work.)
*  Edit-Script-Textually now puts up a single-message-browser whose title shows the external name of the object as known to the user, rather than the internal "Playerxxx" class name.
*  The "try me" buttons run the compiled script methods now rather than evaluating the codestring from the corresponding tiles.
*  "UserObjects" used as the category for all user objects, whether Components or vanilla Players.
*  Various unreachable code stripped out (17 method removals!)

Numerous improvements to Morphic windows from me...
	NOTE: extant windows within morphic may be at risk.
	It may help to execute...
	    SystemWindow allInstancesDo: [:w | w updateIfOld]
	after getting updates.
    Added findWindow, collapseAll, expandAll and do... to the World menu.
    Fixed ability to accept in a StringHolder being edited (as in edit do...).
    Fixed pane proportions in MessageLists
    SystemWindows now init with activeOnlyOnTop=true.
        You must set 'activeOnlyOnTop: false' if this is not desired.
    Fixed problem of scrollbars not displaying on first appearance.
    Sped up scrollbar display (don't recreate morph if extent is same).
    Made it so auto-selects, such as Debugger pc, scroll into view.
    Resolved the competition between scrollbars and resize handles.
    Fixed NewParagraph characterBlockForIndex: to tolerate arguments beyond range
	    (needed for how browser selects templates).
    Dictionary inspection now works in Morphic (but not PictDicts). 
    Added automatic placement of collapsed and expanded morphic windows.
        For now, this just uses the same old code that MVC does.
    Fixed bug when compiler wants to insert a message in code.
Fixed bug adding a category to a metaclass in the browser.
Fixed LargeNegInt highBit to work again.





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