Stamp editor - feature request

Genesis

It would be VERY useful if the stamp editor had an "include" directive.

The reason for this is that in a multi-partition program variable space is shared (unless you explicitly save and restore it on partition switch) so having one file containing all the variable definitions would prevent a LOT of errors that might otherwise occur...

Something to think about - I would find this extremely useful!
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Jon Williams

You'll have to copy-and-paste -- we've discussed the pros and cons of this issue more times than we can remember, and the cons always win; so no include files (at least for the time being....).

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax

John R.

After getting caught up in a couple other "feature request" threads, I'd like to offer the following:

The existing development environements are adequate, if not "full featured".

Parallax and the various developers COULD spend time adding features.

There are three potential results, one is a sure thing, the other two are strong possibilities:

First: These efforts would take time and resources from other activites that would probably be of more benefit to the user community, either in the form of additional products, and/or additional application and example code (either directly, or via these forums). This is an absolute certainty. There is only so much time and energy to go around.

Then, one or both the following would happen:

Some folks (including me) would get what they think is the most important thing since canned beer. Others would wonder why these "useless" are clogging up their user interface.

The IDE would become as bloated as some of Microsoft's compliers, and it would take a computer scientest to run them to their full potential. While various users would find use for all the features, few would use more than half of them. Support becomes more difficult exponentially, as the number of permiutations (sp?) grows, and the users find more and more ways to get lost and make mistakes/create problems.

I'm not saying that no changes should ever be made, but that there is a balancing act, and Team Parallax will hopefully continue ot find the right balance on where to place their efforts.

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John R.

8 + 8 = 10

Kevin Wood

I don't know if this has been suggested, but Parallax could always license the compiler to a third-party developer for creating a third-party IDE. Parallax could manage their own IDE as seen fit, the developer would manage their product as seen fit, and the customer could choose as seen fit.

Jon Williams

If you're a third-party developer we already make the compiler available as a linkable file (e.g., DLL for Windows) that you can incorporate into your own IDE. Note that the compiler does not support include files, so your IDE would have to create an intermediate file for compilation. Or, you can actually call out IDE "silently" through a command-line interface if you choose (this is what the Scribbler GUI does).

The tricky part will be resolving syntax errors to their original source file (e.g., a syntax error exists in one of your include files).

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax