Probably this has already been covered as a limitation and may I haven't really understood it. There is one thing troubling me at the moment. From what I can see, you can easily get data out of your data structure. And for what I am trying, editing data manually/per GUI is quite easy. But how to set data programmatically, i.e. by message? As you can only change a certain scalar by setting a pointer to it, the only way I see is to traverse all scalars until you find the one you want to change. Is this currently the only way to change a property of a particular scalar?
yes, you can only get or set data if you point to the relevant scalar.
clicking allows you to get a pointer (for any method you want), but if you
do everything with the program, you need to traverse until you get it
right.
for that I usually create an identifier (number, symbol, whatever) that I
use to confirm if I have the correct reference before editing it. the
method was explained in a previous mail.
I guess the way you get the relevant pointer will vary on the program,
difference contexts have different needs.
but the same happens when access/edit an element from a list or an array.
the program must know beforehand (by user interaction or by the program
itself) which element is relevant.