🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug5.225742.1752@cs.aukuni.ac.nz>
jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA) wrote:

>if you have some data in a standard format (text, sprite, drawfile,
>etc) that needs to be edited, then you should just be able to invoke
>another application to go away and edit that data, and return the
>data to you when the editing is finished.

I achieved something similar using an existing editor in the following
way:

The client application saves the data in a temporary file.
It broadcasts a Message_DataOpen for that file.
The editor loads the file and acknowledges the message.
The client deletes the file.
The client looks periodically to see if the file exists.
The user edits and saves it from the editor in the usual way.
The client notices that the file exists again and re-loads it.

If there is no response to the DataOpen the client could start up some
appropriate editor or give an error.  This whole procedure could be
wrapped up in a separate module.

One disadvantage with this scheme is that the client must poll for the
re-creation (or change in modification time) of the file.  I
originally implemented this scheme by having the user save the file
then click the client's icon to get it to re-load the file but polling
works fine and is less work for the user.

Another problem might be that the editor you want to use doesn't
respond (properly) to DataOpen on the filetype you want to edit.  This
can be fixed (for !Edit at least) by putting type FFF in the message.

It would be nice if you could find out what editors were running
without having to use DataOpen.  (Is there a service call or something
to get info about running tasks?)  Then you could have a proper
conversation with them rather than just throwing your data out and
hoping someone will edit it.
--
Denis Howe <dbh@doc.ic.ac.uk>
There is water at the bottom of the ocean.