Is there a way to use the "print either" macro to print buttons rather than straight text

Question

Hi all, 

I'm trying to use the print either macro to get it to print one of two buttons but I'm not sure whether that's possible, or if there's another way to do it. Any help would be much appreciated. At the moment, I have: 

 

<<print either( 

<<button "[[What does that mean?]]">>...<</button>>,

<<button "[[You now have to decide what to do next.]]">>...<</button>>)
>>

 

Answer 1

While you can use the print macro to evaluate markup, and it will be parsed correctly, it's really not the recommended solution. That is, you're looking for program control, and should probably use one of the program control macros, but combine it with an either() to create the randomization that you want. That might look something like this: 

<<set _sel to either(0, 1)>>\
<<switch _sel>>\
<<case 0>>\
    <<button [[What does that mean?]]>>...<</button>>
<<case 1>>\
    <<button [[You now have to decide what to do next.]]>>...<</button>>
<</switch>>

Note that you don't have to (and shouldn't) quote your double-square bracket markup when it's passed to a macro as an argument. 

Comments

Unless the random value itself is of value there, you don't need a variable there at all.  For example:

<<switch either(0, 1)>>
<<case 0>>\
    <<button [[What does that mean?]]>>...<</button>>\
<<case 1>>\
    <<button [[You now have to decide what to do next.]]>>...<</button>>\
<</switch>>

That said.  I'd simply use the random(…) function there.  For example:

<<switch random(1)>>
<<case 0>>\
    <<button [[What does that mean?]]>>...<</button>>\
<<case 1>>\
    <<button [[You now have to decide what to do next.]]>>...<</button>>\
<</switch>>

The either(…) function and <Array>.random() method are good when you have discrete values you want to select from at random.  When you simply need a random integer number within a certain range, then random() is likely a better choice.