Better FileMaker Comments
One of the better FileMaker habits has always been to document your code (cause there aren’t that many places to do it) and while the debate is clearly out on whether it’s better to spend the time on documentation or features, I can’t live without my documentation. Most especially, when it comes to FileMaker scripts and the manner in which FM handles code comments, I think there is a better way to do things.
When you bring up the Comment script step, you’re offered a miniscule dialog box that allows you to type megs and megs of text per a single script line. While that may serve the original purpose of script comments, it’s not necessarily effective with large comments as all that text doesn’t wrap and stays on that single line. Given the finite amount of horizontal width on developers’ screens, having to scroll aaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllll the way to the right with the longer comments is frankly, almost unusable, and a pain in the ass. Thus, as a general rule of thumb, I only let my comments stay on one or two lines in the comment dialog box (see below)
If I end up needing more lines for that script comment then I add a new comment line and type, again, only one or two lines of text in the Specify Comments dialog. It takes minutely longer, but the end result is a usable and readable piece of code that isn’t troublesome to revisit (see below for an example).
This kinda thing may be clear to more experienced developers, but it may seriously help the novice script writers who can focus on more important things, like script logic. Enjoy!I’m sure there are FileMakers who have their own methods of script documentation. Please feel free to post images and techniques up in the comments!
