Re: \startuserdata syntax questions

[Rik Kabel <context@rik.users.panix.com>]

On 8/29/2018 11:19, Wolfgang Schuster wrote:
>
>
> Hans Hagen schrieb am 29.08.18 um 09:15:
>> On 8/28/2018 10:40 PM, Rik Kabel wrote:
>>> Wolfgang, Hans, et al,
>>>
>>> The new \startuserdata macro looks very promising, and can simplify 
>>> some work I have in progress.
>>>
>>> The first question: the wiki example and the source use
>>>
>>>     \userparameter{optionkey}
>>>     \userparameter{anotherkey}
>>>
>>> to retrieve the value of optionkey and anotherkey. Is there a way to 
>>> provide the key/value pairs in a manner that they can be retrieved 
>>> with the getparameters mechanism, as:
>>>
>>>     \getrawparameters [XX] [optionkey=,anotherkey=,#1]
>>>
>>> This has the added advantage of allowing the setting of a default 
>>> value, as
>>>
>>>     \getrawparameters [XX] [optionkey=2em,anotherkey=,#1]
>>>
>>> Or is there a reason not to use getparameters in this setting?
>>
>> hardly any of the core mechanisms in mkiv uses get(raw)parameters
>>
>> define a category and then clone it ... 
>
> \defineuserdata [rik] [name=Rik,alternative=rik]
>
> \defineuserdataalternative [rik] [renderingsetup=userdata:rik]
>
> \startsetups [userdata:rik]
>     \starttabulate[|l|p|]
>     \NC \userdataparameter{name} \NC \getuserdata \NC\NR
>     \stoptabulate
> \stopsetups
>
> \starttext
>
> \startuserdata [rik]
> \samplefile{greenfield}
> \stopuserdata
>
> \startuserdata [rik] [name=Greenfield]
> \samplefile{greenfield}
> \stopuserdata
>
> \stoptext
>

Ahh, that does nicely to set defaults. Thank you.

>> The second question: Is there the possibility to enhance the syntax 
>> so that one can write
>>>
>>>     \startMyStuff [optionalkey=value, anotherkey=value]
>>>          stuff
>>>     \stopMyStuff
>>>
>>> instead of
>>>
>>>     \startuserdata [MyStuff] [optionalkey=value, anotherkey=value]
>>>     stuff
>>>     \stopuserdata
>
> I can generated environment commands but I haven’t done this at the 
> beginning because I prefer to pass the name of the environment as 
> argument because this allows me to check if the used instance exists.
>
>>> Such syntactic sugar makes sweeter reading of the text, and makes 
>>> clearer what is being done when nesting the macro.
>> for such Named environments there are probably other alternatives 
>> (depending on what you need it for), like blocks
>>
>> also, user dat picks up its content (they're buffers) so that would 
>> also mean more nested buffers .. it's meant as a simple mechanism
>
> Yes, the environment is meant for short blocks of text (e.g. a 
> blockquote) where you have to set different texts (e.g. the name of a 
> author) for each use of the environment.
>
> I thought about adding a switch to change between buffer mode and 
> normal start/stop commands which work like the startstop environment 
> but it wasn’t worth the effort.
>

Very well. It is what it is. The ability to set defaults goes a long way.

> Wolfgang
>
-- 
Rik


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