Subject:
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Re: DAT format question
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev
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Date:
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Wed, 22 Sep 1999 16:37:15 GMT
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Viewed:
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425 times
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On Wed, 22 Sep 1999 03:08:22 GMT, "Gary Williams" <graywolf@pcpros.net>
wrote:
> My experience has been that as flexibility increases, complexity increases.
> I'm usually quite anal about coding objects to always behave in a very
> structured, predictable pattern.
Complexity also increases as over-specification increases.
> Should I also allow inserting a free-floating polygon or line anywhere on a
> model? Or would geometric primitives (polygons, lines, optional lines) not
> be allowed unless you opened a file as a part/primitive?
Yes, polygons and lines should be allowed. Maybe that should be on the
advanced interface, but it should be allowed.
> Or would the selected object always be something that was added directly to
> the root model?
Yes.
> If you clicked on a stud on a brick on a subassembly of a model, would the
> subassembly become the currently-selected object?
Exactly. And if you right-click an object, one of the options should be to
open that object for editing, assuming the object isn't an inherent
primitive.
> > > In other words, the user's ability to manipulate an object should be
> > > restricted to only those actions that are in context for that object.
>
> If all DAT files are treated equally, this could create confusion with new
> users, by not being able to have the most-likely options at a given time
> displayed more prominently.
It shouldn't be the context for an object as much as the context for the
user's goals. If the user wants to build a virtual lego model, they
shouldn't be forced to key in type 1 line commands. But they should be
able to do that, if they want to.
LDAO includes two editors. One is the Editor, which is a text editor with
LDraw-specific functions. This is supplied for users (typically parts and
primitives authors) who need to have full access to the code. The second
editor is the Modeller, which was written to be keystroke-compatible with
LEdit. It does not provide direct access to editing lines--you use
key-commands to move and rotate parts. Different user goals, different
editors. But you can edit any type of DAT file in either editor.
> > > The only other alternative I can think of would to have sub-menus on
> > > the File/Open and File/New menus, one for each file type. Then it would
> >
> > > be up to the user to tell the program what type of file he was about to
> > > work with.
Or let the user switch interfaces after the file is open.
> Well, I'll experiment with collapsing my object class hierarchy and
> simplifying it to have one universal object to represent models, parts, and
> primitives. Maybe I did go overboard when I defined twenty classes...:)
Did you publish your class hierarchy? It would be interesting to see. It
would make some sense to derive the specific types from a DAT-File base
class. But maybe there really isn't enough difference between the
file-types to bother.
Steve
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: DAT format question
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| Steve Bliss wrote in message <37e9033a.13891366@l...et.com>... (...) Yup. The simplified one I made last night is here: (URL) over-complicated one isn't on the server anymore. -Gary (25 years ago, 22-Sep-99, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: DAT format question
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| Bram Lambrecht wrote in message <19990921.200045.509...no.com>... (...) My experience has been that as flexibility increases, complexity increases. I'm usually quite anal about coding objects to always behave in a very structured, predictable (...) (25 years ago, 22-Sep-99, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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