> > The only problem I can forsee is when there is a need to know whether
> > the property has been set or is going to a default value from a
> > containing parent. Perhaps the property could be available in a long
> > form, with a suffix that indicates whether or not the property is
> > inherited from the parent.
>
> Please suggest a syntax for this.
>
> How about the properties dialogs? For example, should the "Object
> Colors" dialog show the parent's colors? It doesn't now, but that's
> because you can tell whether an object has it's attributes set.
>
> What about automatic reversion? That is, if an object property is set
> to the same value should it revert back to "obtaining" its value from
> the parent? If this isn't enabled, every time you edit any of the
> properties, they all get fixed.
>
I'm waffling on the syntax. I was hoping it would be intuitively obvious
to Scott. Possible syntaxes could include:
CopiedFromParent <actualValue>
<ActualValue> CopiedFromParent
Reversion could be done simply by setting the property value to
CopiedFromParent. I think reversion should be explicit, since that is
more in line with Metacard's philosophy of geometry management and such.
If CopiedFromParent is considered to verbose, the shorthand could be
just the acronym (cpf), or the word "provided".
> > One could use the words "obtain" and "provide" instead of inheritance.
> > Thus the parent "provides" a default property value for its children,
> > while the child "obtains" the value from the parent. Similarly, since
> > Metacard doesn't implement class inheritance, I think the parent- child
> > metaphor can be used without conflict. For clarity, one could talk
> > about "the containing parent" and "the contained child/ren", vs. the
> > "class parent" or the "subclass child/ren".
>
> I've heard these terms used by psychologists, but not by CS types. Do
> they already mean something in the CS literature?
>
I've read about client/server relationships described as obtain/provide
service relationships, but I've never seen any other formal use of the
words "provides/obtains" in the literature. We could always run it up
a newsgroup and see who pees on it.
gerG