[squeak-dev] automaticPhraseExpansion ?

stephane ducasse stephane.ducasse at free.fr
Mon Nov 10 20:33:01 UTC 2008


thanks scott.

Stef

On Nov 9, 2008, at 2:31 AM, Scott Wallace wrote:

> On Nov 8, 2008, at 12:25 PM, stephane ducasse wrote:
>
>> Does anybody has an idea what is the purpose of  
>> automaticPhraseExpansion in PasteUpMorph?
>
>
> Hi, Stephane,
>
> It's an etoy-related feature only.
>
> It governs whether a phrase tile which has just been grabbed from a  
> Viewer, if dropped into the pasteUpMorph, should automatically get  
> expanded into new Scriptor whose script consists of that single  
> phrase.
>
> This kind of "expansion", of course, constitutes the essential first  
> bit of "magic" in any intro-to-etoys demo -- the user grabs a copy  
> of a "car forward by 5" phrase-tile, drops it on the desktop, and  
> the result is a complete "Script", ready to run.
>
> But experience showed that this kind of magical expansion was not  
> appropriate for every paste-up morph, nor for every user, and indeed  
> it can be quite annoying in some cases, and worse than annoying in  
> others -- think, for example, of dropping a phrase tile into a  
> pasteUpMorph that is inside a "supplies bin."
>
> Normally (in current Squeakland and olpc Etoy images at least,) the  
> "world" has this property turned on, as does the "Scripting Space,"  
> but other PasteUpMorphs, such as most book pages, and the  
> "Playfield" you get from the Supplies bin, do not.   The user can  
> change the "automaticPhraseExpansion" behavior of any particular  
> pasteup (such as a book page, or a flap) via a checkbox in its  
> playfield-options menu, to suit individual needs.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> -- Scott
>
>




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