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[disc] argument order to cords...



http://www.research.att.com/~davek/mcp2.html

I raised an issue some time ago concerning the apparent enforced order
of keyword/value pairs in a cords message. From the definition of the
'cord' message:

    The arguments after the _message argument are the arguments to the
    cord message.

I believe this explicitly suggests a fixed appearance to the 'cord'
message which is at variance with the the statement regarding the
nature of the message format in the 'Message Format' section:

    The keyword-value pairs provide arguments for the action specified
    by the message name. They can appear in any order.

What is the correct explaination?

o	cords are a special case of MCP message with a fixed
	keyword/value order

o	cords are a normal MCP message and the _message argument can
	appear anywhere in the message and should have a quoted string
	value if the _message is intended to contain several parameters
	which are to be passed to the cord's recipient.

o	underscore keywords (_...) are special cased for cord messages
	and only non-underscore keywords are passed to the cord's recipient.
	There is some undisclosed way for cords to pass-through other
	underscore keywords if these are defined for the cord
	recipient.  So enabling messages of the following form to be
	processed (line broken for sake of readability):

	#$#cord 3487 
		_id: I12345 
		_message: cord 
		__id: I48268 
		__message: delete-stroke 
		stroke-id: ...

Ay.