Understanding Metacode - Closures and Generics - Part B

This is a second episode of a preface to using language extensions in Realaxy ActionScript Editor (RASE). In this video we’ll examine some basic syntactic elements that are valid almost for all the language extensions of RASE.

(Source: youtube.com)

Understanding Metacode - Preface to Language Extensions - Part A

This video is an introduction to metaprogramming in ActionScript3 done in Realaxy-way. 

When we’re programming, we’re not really manipulating text. As distinct to any other (text-oriented) IDE, a code in the main window is not a plain text, it’s just a text-like representation of the Abstract Syntactic Tree (AST). The plain text appears only in the very last phase, just before the actionscript file will be sent to the compiler. 

Using of AS3 language extensions in Realaxy Editor is entirely optional, however, some of them are tightly integrated with the IDE. In this video the two items will be examined in depth: first, you will see what’s behind the trace expression; second, the work with annotations (metadata) will be cleared.

To summarize the contents of this tutorial, the ultimate purpose of every text-oriented editor’s functionality simmers down to facilitate the process of text writing. Or, that is to say, to simplify generating hundreds lines of bulky code (which is mostly addressed to compiler, not to human).

The vital difference of RASE is to do the same but outside the editor’s window, at the pre-compilation stage. In that case, the code we handle with, remains readable and concise.

(Source: youtube.com)

Code Navigation in Realaxy Editor

Tutorial Details

Difficulty: Low
Estimated Completion Time: 5 mins
Previous part: When Code Is Not A Text

Introduction

This is part 2 of the series Getting Started with Realaxy ActionScript Editor (RASE). In the previous post we have talked about the difference between RASE and text-based IDE: what are “editing point”, “substitution rule” and  ”right and left transformation rules”. Here we’ll clear some moments about code navigation in Realaxy Editor.

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When Code Is Not A Text

Tutorial Details

Difficulty: Low
Estimated Completion Time: 7 mins
Previous part: Step-by-step tutorial on Hello World Application with Realaxy Editor

Introduction

This is part 2 of the series Getting Started with Realaxy ActionScript Editor (RASE). Here we’ll speak about some several aspects of code editing in RASE. Just like every other code editor, which is based on Jetbrains MPS platform, it can be a bit confusing the first time you use it. There’s no text, but there’s a GUI specially designed for the code input. This may look like a text at first glance, but it’s not. There’s no parser, but there are code editing rules which define the way the code can be input into the GUI.

Jetbrains call it a ‘projectional editor’ which allows you to edit the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) directly. Remember, the code is edited and stored as an AST.

Such an approach has a number of advantages that go beyond the scope of this post. If you’re interested, please refer to this article and/or to this discussion at stackoverflow.com.

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