Re: [platform-ui-dev] Problems with partitioning (writing an editor plug

["Bob Foster" <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Please forgive that little rant.

I wrote it when I realized I was pushing the design limits of the existing
partitioner and was going to have to write one, which would be a pain and
undoubtedly introduce new bugs, etc. And it was late. My dog bit me. Etc.

Actually, I'm grateful that the code is open source and well-written, so I
was able to find the issue pretty easily once it dawned on me there might be
one.

Bob ;-}

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Foster" <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <platform-ui-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2002 1:27 AM
Subject: [platform-ui-dev] Problems with partitioning (writing an editor
plugin)


> The partition/color within partition idea is really clever, but I have had
a
> lot of trouble with it because its correctness depends on a number of
> undocumented conditions. I certainly would have wasted less time had these
> conditions been clearly stated, and I suspect others would, too.
>
> Release 2.0 seems to exacerbate the problem by piling on more undocumented
> conditions, but how can one tell? Maybe these existed in the author's mind
> all along?
>
> The first condition I have run afoul of, common to 1.0 and 2.0, is that
> partitions can only extend themselves if they are at the end of the file.
> For example, suppose you have the characters "<foo></foo>". If you insert
a
> '<' character between the tags like "<foo><</foo>" an appropriate scanner
> will yield three partitions, "<foo>", "<" and "</foo>". However, if you
now
> insert a character after the '<' like "<foo><a</foo>", this will yield
four
> partitions, "<foo>", "<", "a" and "</foo" instead of the desired three
> because the partition "<" is not rescanned, but the partition "</foo>".
>
> 2.0 piles on the pain by assuming that every partitioning rule can be
> restarted in the middle. Some can't.
>
> I say foo. Not to be excessively negative, but if there is a coherent
design
> in here somewhere, could it please be documented so people can not waste
> time with it if it doesn't meet their needs?
>
> Bob
>
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