-- card: 22134 from stack: in.0
-- bmap block id: 0
-- flags: 0000
-- background id: 3797
-- name: 


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From: kurtzman@pollux.usc.edu (Stephen Kurtzman)

Date: 1 Mar 88 07:09:41 GMT

>I call the above construction an "unquoted literal".

>Unfortunately, I'm still the only person in the world who knows many
>secrets of HyperTalk, such as exactly where unquoted literals are
>allowed, where they're not, where they are restricted to single tokens,
>and where they can be multiple tokens.

>Unquoted literals exist only for lazy typists and forgetful beginners.
>If you can at all manage to supply the quotes, it's much better that
>way, mainly because statements that use unquoted literals can suddenly
>begin to behave differently if you ever define a variable with the same
>name as the unquoted literal.  Fortunately, only the handler can define
>things in its scope, but it's still dangerous.

As stated, if an unquoted literal becomes a valid variable name, the
HyperTalk command will be interpreted in a different way. It is also
wise to remember that a misspelled variable name will be interpretted as
an unquoted literal.

While the unquoted literal was added for beginners, it is a pain for both
the experienced programmer and the beginner alike. It took me quite a
while to discover a misspelled variable name - HyperCard was working
it just kept going to the wrong card. This inconsistent interpretation,
in which the same statement will have a different meaning based on the
set of variable defined in the stack, is enough to make beginners give
up in frustration. It is misfeatures such as the unquoted literal that
can make programming in HyperText a pain.

Dan, since you are upset at the quality of HyperText books on the market,
and you admit you are one of the few who knows all the ins-and-outs, please
tell your marketing people at Apple to hire some technical writers to
produce a real HyperText manual. With you help, I am sure they can produce
a manual that will meet even your high standards.



-- part contents for background part 45
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Re: HyperCard bug  <- No, it's a feature.