SafeChars plugin

[Steve Fabian]

Charles:
I'd like to suggest improvements in the dynamic help.
1/ Replace "Press a key:" with "Press any key to exit." If the text is from
Rex, need to ask him to make the change.
2/ Add summary documentation, invoked by any one of the following commands:
HELP SAFE
HELP SAFECHAR
HELP SAFECHARS
HELP @SAFE
HELP @SAFECHAR
HELP @SAFECHARS
The summary should enumerate the available features by category. If the
underlying display engine permits it, "clicking" on any feature should bring
up its help. It should also include the translation table.
3/ Add to @SAFEEXP and @SAFEENV help that @SAFEEXP is the one to be used for
array elements, not @SAFEENV.
Is there a simple way to switch back to the original ("unsafe") version
of the string, without preserving both the original and its safe version?
BTW, I use the 2010-06-28 version. The associated HTML file display
width does not scale when the Firefox window is made narrower. Even when
opened when Firefox is already open, it only displays the left part of the
text, WITHOUT horizontal scroll bar. I also recommend returning to the
traditional indented paragraphs, because they require less white space to
separate paragraphs (instead of a full line only the indentation), and they
more clearly indicate when non-paragraph material (e.g., a table or source
code) is included whether the previous paragraphs is continued or a new
paragraph starts. Another of my pet peeves is referring to a "quotation
mark" as a "double quote". A real "double quote" is when I quote something
that already includes a quotation, and is something like this: "He said -
and I quote - 'That is nonsense!'". We should not propagate the
misinformation of the sixties!
--
Steve

 

[Charles Dye]

Charles:
I'd like to suggest improvements in the dynamic help.
1/ Replace "Press a key:" with "Press any key to exit." If the text is from
Rex, need to ask him to make the change.

Trivial enough....

2/ Add summary documentation, invoked by any one of the following commands:
HELP SAFE
HELP SAFECHAR
HELP SAFECHARS
HELP @SAFE
HELP @SAFECHAR
HELP @SAFECHARS

The word after HELP is passed to the plugin which offers a matching command/function/variable. Since this plugin doesn't have any commands or functions by those names, I'd never see the text. (Short of ugliness like hooking the HELP command; bleah.)

But I think what you're really asking for is a proper .CHM help file, instead of the ASCII silliness in the current plugin. Time consuming but not difficult, since the docs are already in HTML; maybe.

3/ Add to @SAFEEXP and @SAFEENV help that @SAFEEXP is the one to be used for array elements, not @SAFEENV.

Right enough.

Is there a simple way to switch back to the original ("unsafe") version
of the string, without preserving both the original and its safe version?

Redirected ECHO, with UnicodeOutput off? (What else could you do with it?)

BTW, I use the 2010-06-28 version. The associated HTML file display
width does not scale when the Firefox window is made narrower. Even when opened when Firefox is already open, it only displays the left part of the text, WITHOUT horizontal scroll bar.

Hold down the Control key while turning the scroll wheel on the mouse. (I spent hours adding that feature to my doc file; hope you enjoy it.)

Another of my pet peeves is referring to a "quotation
mark" as a "double quote". A real "double quote" is when I quote something that already includes a quotation, and is something like this: "He said - and I quote - 'That is nonsense!'". We should not propagate the
misinformation of the sixties!

The double quote being the part enclosed in single quotation marks; the part only in double quotation marks is a single quote. I get you. But the usage in my docs matches Rex's in the Take Command documentation; see HELP QUOTING for example. Sometimes overmuch accuracy gets in the way of understanding....

 

[Charles Dye]

I've uploaded a new build. No changes to core functionality; the online help has been reworked to use a .CHM.

http://www.unm.edu/~cdye/plugins/