[Manifold-l] macro-makers / scripters

[SCISOFT]

Re AutoIT and QuickMacros: I just cannot imagine that such a product would
have any "access" to the Manifold scripting engine. Tell me if I'm wrong -
but I think that even installing these and trying would be a waste of time! 

As has been indicated many times before, a number of people believe that
Manifold needs richer events. Just having some variation of a "macro
recorder" isn't enough for many serious coders. A few people whose opinions
/ comments I respect have made a reasonable case for this, here and on the
Manifold Community website. 

But having script echoing would be good. In contrast to 1 or 2 recent
comments, I would predict a very big impact on those who are now very
tentative about beginning any Manifold scripting (and the common Manifold
answer to any question is "write a script"), by the implementation of an
"echoing" function. 

That's certainly why the MapBasic (MB) scripting language in MapInfo
Professional has taken off, over many years - in the "immediate window",
users can see the simple statements that have been executed. MB is not so
object based, so my guess would be that implementing something equivalent in
Manifold might be a little tricky. What is very good about MB is that it has
a limited but very useful set of events that allow simple icon-based
user-defined tools to be easily created (to sit on a button toolbar). What
is very bad about MB is that it has an extremely awkward way of defining
forms or dialog boxes (no visual designer). Despite all of that, the user
fraternity of MapInfo has created a huge array of user tools, for various
specialist purposes. 

Some of these tools (which are just encapsulated or modularized scripts, put
into a compiled package - a MBX file that the GIS itself can run - and
sometimes associated with a button on a user a toolbar, or a menu) are very
simple, others are elaborate and part of very sophisticated work flows and
have been supplemented by other extensions. 

Some of that is possible within the Manifold Add-Ins model. 

As we all know, Manifold provides a lot more, for free, than MapInfo does.
MB is a significant extra cost (more than the total cost of a mid-range
Manifold license). 

Manifold Net Ltd may regard MapInfo as an insignificant player (or is it
that some people have too much ESRI focus?) in their market segment, but
there are features of MI that I would like to see adopted within Manifold.
Over the past 2 or 3 years I have occasionally espoused these, but I'm a
lone voice I think. 

IL Thomas
GeoSciSoft  - Perth, Australia

  _____  

From: manifold-l-bounces at lists.directionsmag.com
[mailto:manifold-l-bounces at lists.directionsmag.com] On Behalf Of Linus F
Upson III
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 3:54 AM
To: JBurn_GIS; Simon Linder; Dimitri Rotow;
manifold-l at lists.directionsmag.com
Subject: Re: [Manifold-l] Manifold reference clients

 

I'll try AutoIT but I really think my scripter would be based on Manifold
natives (or scripts) which operates similar to ERDAS Imagine's query machine
but has a built-in "preview" capability (like PhotoShop's) for both tabular
and spatial 'tentative results,'  which in turn are actively updated as the
script is assembled and tested.  

----- Original Message ----- 

From: JBurn_GIS <mailto:jburn_gis at cogeco.ca>  

To: Linus F Upson III <mailto:lupson at cox.net>  ; Simon
<mailto:slinder at widernetworks.com>  Linder ; Dimitri
<mailto:dar at manifold.net>  Rotow ; manifold-l at lists.directionsmag.com 

Sent: Friday, 20 October, 2006 12:40 AM

Subject: Re: [Manifold-l] Manifold reference clients

 

While I'm not sure I agree w/ Simon's other points - we have high school
co-op students with no former GIS training figureing those things out within
a day or so; I agree that a macro maker/editor would be grand.  I think I
suggested it to sales in the form of a new kind of component.  However, in
the meantime I would suggest you look at either AutoIT (free) or QuickMacros
(I think its ~$30).  Both are program independent "macro makers".  AutoIT
will even make them into a nice executable ... which could be added to
Manifold as an add-in;-)

 

Cheers.

---------------
James Burn BSc, GIS(pg), AScT

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Linus F Upson III <mailto:lupson at cox.net>  

To: Simon <mailto:slinder at widernetworks.com>  Linder ; Dimitri
<mailto:dar at manifold.net>  Rotow ; manifold-l at lists.directionsmag.com 

Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 12:06 AM

Subject: Re: [Manifold-l] Manifold reference clients

 

    Amen.  The theme of the next version of Manifold should be "solutions" 
and a click & move scripter + library based on existing functions.  But then

these have been suggested before.  Linus

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Simon Linder" <pslinder at earthlink.net>
To: "Dimitri Rotow" <dar at manifold.net>; <manifold-l at lists.directionsmag.com>
Sent: Thursday, 19 October, 2006 11:09 AM
Subject: RE: [Manifold-l] Manifold reference clients


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