Re: Overridden objects from StandardSuite in sdef

On 2007-07-13, at 08:32:00, Bill Cheeseman wrote:

on 2007-07-13 10:59 AM, Christiaan Hofman at email@hidden wrote:

But not in Sketch.sdef, where the document with custom properties is declared in the Standard Suite. So I'm still not sure what is the preferred way (if there is one). And this makes it confusing that the dictionary lists the properties of the application object in 2 different places.

My personal view, based on 14 years' experience with AppleScript, is that all elements and properties of an object should appear in one object definition in the terminology dictionary. Although there are many examples of either approach, including examples from Apple, I find that users are less confused when everything relating to, say, the application object or the document object is located in a single application or document section of the dictionary. To the extent there is a current "official" view on this subject, I believe it is the same.

I think it's less confusing for novice users to see classes and commands defined in one place. However, it doesn't do them any favors by shielding them from the concept that an application may define and implement things differently than what the Standard Suite suggests. Otherwise, they'll never know what the Standard Suite really is. It's more important that a dictionary viewer show when an application is deviating from the standard.

The problem is really one of portrayal not the location of the definitions.

Currently, if I have some extra properties for the document class, then the Script Editor dictionary viewer shows links so the user can go back and forth between the Standard Suite and my application suite and see what is standard and what is an extension or restriction. However it's a bother to do that and it's confusing to see:

document n [inh. item] : A document.

ELEMENTS

contained by application, application

The above portrayal is arrived at via an XSL Transformation applied to an sdef. So really, for that portion, I think its just a matter of tweaking the stylesheet.

Let's look at a different imaginary portrayal. One where things are merged:

document noun : A document.

PARENT

application

ELEMENTS

text

STANDARD PROPERTIES

modified (boolean, r/o) : Has the document been modified since the last save?

name : Not available in this application.

path (Unicode text) : The document's path.

EXTRA PROPERTIES

author (Unicode text) : The author of this document.

title (Unicode text) : The title of the document.

And something similar for commands where the portrayal clearly shows the command augments the standard or perhaps is not even available for our application.

Philip Aker

email@hidden

References:
	>Re: Overridden objects from StandardSuite in sdef (From: Bill Cheeseman <email@hidden>)