Scripting Documentation?

[mblais]

Wow, scripting, great!

I'm a programmer - perfect. But where's the documentation?

I like programming, but I'm not too keen on the idea of spending days deciphering something that should take only an hour to learn.

Is the documentation hidden somewhere I haven't found?

A little help, please!

Peace,
RashaMatt

[Per Boysen]

Is the documentation hidden somewhere I haven't foundI bet you didn't look under the Download Section?
http://www.circularlabs.com/download/download.html

[mblais]

I bet you didn't look under the Download Section?
http://www.circularlabs.com/download/download.html

Yes, I already found the "Mobius Scripting" manual, dated June 2007. Unfortunately it didn't answer many of the questions I have - basic stuff like the scope and lifetime of variables. And I have to wonder how relevant the information is - how much has been changed and added in the past three years?

Although the outline is impressive (but is it up to date?), much of the content is missing. A few sections in particular would be very helpful if they had content:

5.4 Parameters and Variables TODO: The difference between parameters and variables, User defined and system variables, variable scoping...
7.3 Intrinsic statements
7.4 Special Labels

Personally I would much rather have a good reference than be constantly going to the Forums asking for advice. That takes much more time - not just mine, but everyone's.

The other question is - which Forum should I go to with questions - this one, or the Yahoo group?

Peace,
RashaMatt

[Jeff]

Recently I've been spending time on the "new user experience" which
had become pretty bad over the years. One part of that is a rewrite
of the documentation, it's slow but progressing.

It will be awhile before the script manual is finished, but I can answer specific questions. Not much has changed with the scripting language since 2006 or so, so what is documented is still relevant. It's mostly just missing stuff.

There are three "scopes" for variables: script, track, and global. Scopes
are defined with a keyword after the Variable.

# a script variable
Variable foo

# a track variable
Variable track foo

# a global variable
Variable global foo


Script variables live for the lifetime of one script execution. In simple cases
this is between the time you push the button bound to the script and when
it reaches the "end" statement or reaches the end of the script. If you
use options like !multiclick the script lifetime is extended until after the
multiclick timeout.

Track variables "live" on each track and are valid until a Global Reset.
Each track can have a value for a variable with the same name.

Global variables live in a special area, there is only one value for all tracks.
They are cleared on a Global Reset.

The "system" variables are things that are maintained by the engine
that you do not have to declare. Usually you can read these but not
set them. Examples are:

loopFrames - the number of frames (samples) in the loop
loopFrame - the current playback frame

There are dozens of variables, some are documented, most are there
just for my unit tests.

Regarding the forum vs the Yahoo group. I prefer to use the forum these days but depending on my work schedule I'm not always keeping up with it.
Since I get Yahoo emails directly to my work account you will sometimes get a faster response, but I'd still rather people use that to as a "hey go look at the forums!" reminder rather than holding long conversations.

Thanks,
Jeff