MDC InformationTips
[[Category::Eiffel for .NET]]
This document details the customization of the balloon tips provided by the Eiffel Metadata Consumer.
Requirements
Balloon tips are supported in the 2.0, or greater, release of the .NET framework. This means you will either need to build the Metadata Consumer using the 2.0 (using the configuration target 'consumer_20') or be using the 64bit version of EiffelStudio.
Configuration
Currently configuration is provide via a system environment variable only. This variable is MDC_BALLOON_TIP. The variable can contain any text and can contain message functions, which are in the form ${namespace:function}. There is no escaping provided as the balloon tips are more of a debug/awareness tool.
Functions
There are a number of functions encompassed on three names.
Message functions are case-insensitive, but use the lower-case Eiffel-like convention.
module Namespace
Final Note
Balloon tips are limited to 256 character (255 printable and 1 null character). This is a Micrsoft API limitation in the Win32 API. Given that a file path can be up to 256 character you should pay attention to what message functions you use.