Hi Ned --

At 2:14 PM -0700 4/7/03, Ned Konz wrote:
>Is it intentional that multiple unscripted players are being created
>(i.e. one for each Holder)? This makes it confusing, as you can have
>multiple script references to "dot" that are in fact references to
>different Dots.

These are deep waters, Watson ...

  I wonder what Scott thinks about this. The problem is that you can 
perfectly well add local scripts and variables to this dot (whereas 
you can't add local ones to "5") so it isn't clear that you want to 
share the dot Smalltalk/Lisp style ....


Cheers,

Alan


At 2:14 PM -0700 4/7/03, Ned Konz wrote:
>On Monday 07 April 2003 01:54 pm, Alan Kay wrote:
>>  Hi --
>>
>>  At 12:20 PM -0700 4/7/03, Ned Konz wrote:
>>  >On Monday 07 April 2003 11:13 am, Alan Kay wrote:
>>  >>  There are no nil variables, all variables have some concrete
>>  >> object in them, and there is a rudimentary type system (which
>>  >> needs to be done better).
>>  >
>>  >But this is inconsistent and confusing from a user point of view.
>>
>>  Why? There is an object of some kind in every variable. E.g.
>>  numeric variables start with a "5" or something. What's
>>  inconsistent about it? More interesting, why do children find this
>>  to be quite consistent? The kind of object the variable is willing
>>  to hold can be changed with the menu on each variable line in the
>>  viewer.
>
>I'm OK with this with regards to variables. What I found inconsistent
>was the Holder behavior.
>
>>  >* Make a new Holder. You don't see anything in it. Its cursor is
>>  > at 1.
>>  >
>>  >* Then run a script that does:
>>  >	Holder includeAtEnd Holder's firstElement
>>  >
>>  >Now you see a dot in it, but its cursor is still at 1. From a
>>  >programmer/scripter point of view, the "before" and "after" states
>>  >are the same. However, the Holder *looks and acts* different:
>>  > there is now a dot in it that can be viewed and grabbed, while
>>  > before there wasn't.
>>
>>  The Holder isn't a variable (but perhaps it should be). But the
>>  behavior you describe sounds like a bug. The variable
>>  "playerAtCursor" seems to hold the default player called "dot", so
>>  perhaps we should see it in the holder (Scott?)
>
>Is it intentional that multiple unscripted players are being created
>(i.e. one for each Holder)? This makes it confusing, as you can have
>multiple script references to "dot" that are in fact references to
>different Dots.
>
>--
>Ned Konz
>http://bike-nomad.com
>GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE


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