I certainly don't mean to criticize. My primary concern is the lack of distinction in flow control statements. Having a fuzzy line between commands and functions is fine if your willing to say "A command is like a function but different. However, FUNCTION, SUB, IF and FOR are certainly not functions.

Anyway, here is the problem....

Unless I set highlighting, indentation, code-completion, and error checking rules on every keyword in the language (which is not practical or maintainable at all), I have to make the distinction regarding statements, operators and Functions/Commands. There is no issue with having both commands and functions but those elements that are traditionally statements and operators need to be distinct from commands because they are distinct in both editing rules and in pre-processing of the code.

The editor’s language processing and indexed help system is built from the same keyword database to facilitate maintenance and extensibility.

I can take two approaches in the Help System:

1.) Have the help reflect the Kixtart classification of “Commands” covering Statements, Operators, and Function Like things, which in my opinion this approach doesn’t solve the inherent issue with clumping them all in one group and introduces confusion when you go into the “Highlighting Preferences” menu and see different classifications than help.

OR

2.) Have the help system reflect the distinction in the categories, which overcomes the above cons but again introduces confusion by deviating from the community standard.

I really would like to hear your thoughts. Also, if you are willing please note if you’ve coded in another language.

schneider


Edited by schneider (2004-05-27 08:57 PM)