[comp.sys.mac.hypercard] dragging in HyperCard

ns@CAT.CMU.EDU (Nicholas Spies) (04/07/88)

It's a real "drag" that 

	choose polygon tool
	drag from x1,y1 to x2,y2p
	drag from x2,y2 to x3,y3
	...
	drag from xn,yn to x1,y1

 doesn't seem to work. Why does HyperTalk permit you to choose the polygon
tool and then not let you do anything with it? Or am I missing something?
-- 
Nicholas Spies			ns@cat.cmu.edu.arpa
Center for Design of Educational Computing
Carnegie Mellon University

beloin@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Ron Beloin) (04/07/88)

In article <1333@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> ns@CAT.CMU.EDU (Nicholas Spies) writes:
>It's a real "drag" that 
>
>	choose polygon tool
>	drag from x1,y1 to x2,y2p
>	drag from x2,y2 to x3,y3
>	...
>	drag from xn,yn to x1,y1
>
> doesn't seem to work. Why does HyperTalk permit you to choose the polygon
>tool and then not let you do anything with it? Or am I missing something?
>-- 
>Nicholas Spies			ns@cat.cmu.edu.arpa
>Center for Design of Educational Computing
>Carnegie Mellon University

In fact, I would have thought that the following would have
worked (if you think how the tool actually works when a human
is using it):
        choose polygon tool
        click at x1,y1
        click at x2,y2 
        ...
        click at xn,yn
        click at the mouseloc --double click at the end
..but, it doesn't.
Any more ideas?
 Ron Beloin, Ecosystems Research Center, Corson Hall, Cornell, Ithaca,NY 14853
 >> opinions << BITNET:BELOIN@CRNLTHRY; INTERNET:beloin@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu
 >> are mine << UUCP:{cmcl2,shasta,uw-beaver,rochester}!cornell!tcgould!beloin

ns@CAT.CMU.EDU (Nicholas Spies) (04/08/88)

>In fact, I would have thought that the following would have
>worked (if you think how the tool actually works when a human
>is using it):
>        choose polygon tool
>        click at x1,y1
>        click at x2,y2 
>        ...
>        click at xn,yn
>        click at the mouseloc --double click at the end
>..but, it doesn't.
>Any more ideas?
> Ron Beloin, Ecosystems Research Center, Corson Hall, Cornell, Ithaca,NY 14853


Yeah, I tried it too.

Funny thing is, both Goodman and Shaffer assert that anything you can do
manually you can also do via a script (e.g. p431 Goodman), which was
probably what they were told when writing their books.

My theory is that HyperTalk was originally meant to emulate all user actions
in scripts, but that clicking or dragging with the polygon tool would
potentially hang the script if the start and end points were not the same.
So, this "feature" was silently dropped, meaning Yet Another Workaround for
The Rest of Us. (I shouldn't be too harsh, because I really love working
with HyperCard in general).
-- 
Nicholas Spies			ns@cat.cmu.edu.arpa
Center for Design of Educational Computing
Carnegie Mellon University