<text><span class="style1">ink failure is quite common in hypertext. I’m not saying it is a good thing, it’s just part of the game. There are cases where link failure is expected, even when everything is working right.
</span><span class="style3">
</span><span class="style1">Links from stacks which you didn’t create may fail. “Infinite hypertext” explains this situation: You may follow links to stacks which aren’t yours. These stacks invariably call links to stacks which you don’t have. If you share your stacks with other users, your stacks may end up being part of a global document network with millions of stacks. You can’t expect to have them all, no matter how much storage space you have. In this way, hypertext simply escapes individual control.
</span><span class="style3">
</span><span class="style1">I will not bore you with idle speculation about the social implications of infinite hypertext. The Dock program is designed with infinity in mind however, and links fail in silence. You click and nothing happens. If your motivation level is low, you can get on with your life without having to deal with a slew of error messages, questions, and dialogs. If you really want to find out where a link was supposed to lead, you may investigate. A phone call to the author will probably give you the answer.
</span></text>
</content>
<content>
<layer>background</layer>
<id>9</id>
<text>"Local Links field" "Standard Documents"
"About LYS Card Info" "LYS Card Info"
</text>
</content>
<name>Link Failure Due to Infinity</name>
<script></script>
</card>
card_5301.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE card PUBLIC "-//Apple, Inc.//DTD card V 2.0//EN" "" >
<text><span class="style1"> link to a stack will fail if the stack is outside of HyperCard’s search paths.
In order to reach the stack now and in the future, you must of course add the appropriate path to the Home stack. The easiest way to do this is to run </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Link Diagnostics</a></span><span class="style1"> by </span><span class="style6">⌘</span><span class="style1">—Clicking on the active text.
• Click on the “Look” button in the error dialog.
</span><span class="style2">
</span><span class="style1">• Search for the stack and select it in the “Locate Stack” dialog.
Now try your active text again. It should now work. If it does not, you might check to see if there are extra spaces in the stack name or in the active text. Extra spaces and invisible characters are the usual culprits.
Also see “</span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Configuring the Installer</a></span><span class="style1">”. Using the installer eliminates this problem before it happens by passing search path info to the Home stack before you access the text.
</span></text>
</content>
<name>Link Failure Out of Search Paths</name>
<script></script>
</card>
card_2291.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE card PUBLIC "-//Apple, Inc.//DTD card V 2.0//EN" "" >
<text><span class="style1"> link may take you out of the current Context. This isn’t in itself a cause of link failure if you are using the standard </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Model Layout</a></span><span class="style1"> for your documents. These documents all have a </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Local Links Field</a></span><span class="style1"> which should contain the addresses for link targets for </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">active text</a></span><span class="style1"> in the stack. The problem is sometimes that the addresses should be there, but aren’t.
</span><span class="style2">
</span><span class="style1">The problem originates in the </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Automatic Links</a></span><span class="style1"> scheme: Let us suppose you have written a card named “Buzz word” which you frequently refer to. You will type the name in other stacks, group it, and keep typing. You hardly ever call the link, since you just happen to know exactly what’s in the card “Buzz word”. The automatic link will be supplied by the Context when needed. You must, however, actually activate the link when it occurs outside the target stack for it to be </span><span class="style10">recorded</span><span class="style1"> as a local link. If you don’t, the link simply won’t work outside of the Context. This is likely to happen to readers other than yourself. You can prevent this situation by </span><span class="style6">⌘</span><span class="style1">—Clicking on active text as soon as it is written. This records the local link if possible. It’s much quicker than actually going to the target and coming back. See “</span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Link Diagnostics</a></span><span class="style1">” for details.
</span><span class="style2">
</span><span class="style1">If a link out of Context is used frequently, you should </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">generate a global link</a></span><span class="style1">.
</span></text>
</content>
<content>
<layer>background</layer>
<id>9</id>
<text>"Dock Procs" "Dock Tools" "establish local links"
"" "Generated Links" "generate a global link"
</text>
</content>
<name>Link Failure Out of Context</name>
<script></script>
</card>
card_2318.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE card PUBLIC "-//Apple, Inc.//DTD card V 2.0//EN" "" >
<text><span class="style1">his kind of failure is expected if the name of a card or a stack is changed and the corresponding changes are not reflected in the active text or in the link records.
</span><span class="style7">
</span><span class="style1">If the active text simply doesn't match the object name, change the active text if you can, or </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">generate a link</a></span><span class="style1">. Remember that maintenance programs leave your text alone, as well they should, so you will always have to do this. You may choose “Replace All in Field” in the Act menu to change all occurences.
</span><span class="style7">
</span><span class="style1">Be sure to </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Rebuild</a></span><span class="style1"> your Context before attempting links on cards with changed names. If a Rebuild doesn't help, run </span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Link Diagnostics</a></span><span class="style1"> to see if there is an outdated link record pointing to a non–existant card. If this is the case, you at least find out the target stack name. Also check the local Links field for any keys which look like the active text.
</span><span class="style7">
</span><span class="style8">Delete any invalid links you find</span><span class="style1">, then generate a new link. If you find that all this is a hassle, you should apply the preventive methods outlined in “</span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">A typical card name change</a></span><span class="style1">”, they really take the bite out of name changes.
</span></text>
</content>
<content>
<layer>background</layer>
<id>9</id>
<text>"A typical card name change" "Context Tools"
</text>
</content>
<name>Link Failure Due to Name Change</name>
<script></script>
</card>
card_4995.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE card PUBLIC "-//Apple, Inc.//DTD card V 2.0//EN" "" >
<text><span class="style1">ou can check the status of a link by </span><span class="style9">⌘</span><span class="style8">—Clicking</span><span class="style1"> on the corresponding active text. This will trigger a diagnostic link follower instead of ordinary navigation. A statement is placed in the message box if the link is OK. If the active text matches a link record and the target stack is not found, a dialog is displayed showing the source of the link record and the link record itself. This info may suggest avenues for further investigation or action. If there is no link record, the routine offers to have you look for a stack outside of HyperCard’s search paths and add a new path. If the link record is OK, it is copied into the local links field once the diagnostics routine is done. Navigation does not occur.
</span><span class="style2">
</span><span class="style1">As stated earlier (</span><span class="style4"><a href="#" class="group">Link failure out of Context</a></span><span class="style1">), Link Diagnostics may be used preventively as a quick way to establish local links to cards without actually going there when you are editing text. If you choose this strategy, you must bear in mind that if the target stack is found but the card doesn’t exist, Link Diagnostics won’t know that something is wrong and will generate an incorrect local link anyway. This is nevertheless a good strategy, since it gives you a little feedback, doesn’t take too long, and doesn’t distract from writing.
