[jawsscripts] Re: I guess everyone else already knew this, but, ...

From: John Martyn <johnrobertmartyn@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2014 18:35:25 -0700
Truthfully, I don't keep the JSD file around. I just used variant for
returning info from functions. I know... naughty boy.
I use the jaws scripting interface because it is quick to insert a function
with good formatting. I like the compiler to tell me when something isn't
right mainly because I hit wrong keys all the time.
John

-----Original Message-----
From: jawsscripts-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:jawsscripts-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andrew Hart
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 8:26 AM
To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [jawsscripts] Re: I guess everyone else already knew this, but, ...

Replies insertedin situ.

On 25/02/2014 11:53 PM, Jim Snowbarger wrote:
> Regarding Andrew's comments about the JAWS Script manager not being a 
> full-on professional development tool.  I am curious about that, 
> especially since I've done a lot of scripting, and always have used 
> it.  (thanks, Andrew.  <grin>).

Hey Jim, I have always used the Script Manager too, so your welcome.  *grin*

Rereding what I wrote, perhaps it's a bit more extreme than I had intended.
You have misquoted me a bit, though Jim.  I didn't say it wasn't a full-on
dev. tool.  I said it wasn't professional quality, primarily for all the
niggling bugs that persist in it after more than
15 years of development.  It's hasn't the polish of a really pro tool,.
 It is without doubt a valuable tool.  If FS scripters were using it on a
day-to-day basis, I'm sure they would have had management prioritise some
fixes to the dev. department.

> I had also heard that the guys at FS don't use it either.

I believe they use textpad.  Part of the reason is undoubtedly the greater
flexibility in being able to place your script project anywhere you like and
not necessarily in the user settings directory.  Why would you want to do
this?  One workflow possibility would be to have the script source in a
version control repository where you make edits and compile, etc., copying
the scripts and binaries to the user settings directory for testing.  I
wanted to do this when developing the Winamp scripts years ago because I had
to support so many different versions of JAWS (from 3.31 through to 6) and I
needed changes to the script source so they would compile on all versions.
The installer builder would package up everything and then place the correct
files in the user settings directory at install time so everything would be
all hunky dory for the user.  The Script Manager did not make this very easy
to do, because it forces you to develop in the user settings directory of
the version of JAWS you are currently running.  It was necessary to
continually move code from the JAWS X settings dir, to the repository and
then copy the appropriate files to the JAWS Y settings dir to compile and
then copy the jsb file back to the repository.  If only I'd known about
scompile.exe in those days!

But even then, scompile.exe is a bit limiting, since it assumes all the
support files, such as jsm and jsh files, are in the same directory as the
jss file, a situation I didn't have while developing the Winamp scripts.
The jsh, jsm and jsd files were pretty much the same for all versions of
JAWS and there were a couple of winamp.jss files to choose among.

Unfortunately, there's no documentation I'm aware of for the command-line
syntax of scomple.exe.  Perhaps there are all kinds of cool things you can
do with it if only you know the command-line switches.
Has anyone got any info about this?

> We may have talked about this before.  Sorry, if so.  but, for those 
> of you who use other editors, what are your reasons for doing that?  
> What do you find more convenient in your favorite editor, over the Script
Manager?
> 
> I personally find it much easier to get an exact name reminder, or 
> prompting on the parameters to, and returned value from, a rarely used 
> JFW built in, for example.  And, a convenient way to also create the JSD
documentation
> without having to muck with yet another file.   Some of these things, I 
> expect you could accomplish by marrying JScript into your editor as a 
> tool, like compiling directly from the source file, or even having 
> your editor place your cursor on the eroneous line that just barfed 
> your compilation attempt, as we often do with other compilers.
> And, you could probably figure out some way to have your editor 
> quickly move you from one function to the next, or bring up a list of 
> functions for convenient access.  All those things could probably be done.
> But, that would take work to figure out exactly how to do that.  So, I 
> wonder why anyone would do that work, when it's already been done, and 
> works fine.
> There has to be some great advantage.

The convenience features such as those you mention are what make the Script
Manager so useful.

> Here are the only one's I can think of. Mostly, they have to do with 
> the JSD documentation file.
> 
> One issue I have heard rumblings about is the constant mucking about 
> in the JSD file, that makes version control systems think the file has 
> changed, when it has only jusbt been rearranged.  If you manage the 
> JSD file yourself, that won't happen.
> 
> Here's another one.
> If  file x.jss uses file y.jsb, and some function in file Y wants to 
> call a function that resides in x, and the interface to that function, 
> it's parameters and returned value,  is not the default, then how does 
> one tell file Y how to invoke that function?
> (yes, I know, this seems awkward design.  But, it offten gets 
> desireable far down the road, when orderly design gives way to pure
pragmatism).
> 
> The only way I have managed to do this is to put the function 
> prototype, describing the function from x, into y.jsd, even though it 
> actually resides in X.
> The automatic management of y.JSD has bit me a few times in this regard.
> By the way, is there a better way to do that?

Can't you use scriptFileName::function name to do this in more recent
versions of JAWS?  I'm sure I read something like this somewhere, but
haven't a clue where.  For example,

PerformScript default::SayLine()

> So, what else.  What are some other good reasons not to use the script 
> manager?


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[jawsscripts] Re: I guess everyone else already knew this, but, ...

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