An interesting feature of this thread is that at first I thought you were after "the best" scripting language or something like that. When I finally understood that what you wanted really was the most widely accessible scripting language, the question took on a completely different meaning. It changed from being a discussion of scripting languages as such to the more practical question of how to distribute some functionality as widely and effortlessly as possible.
-- Russ On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 8:04 PM, Russ Abbott <[email protected]> wrote: > Before sending that script I looked for a way for JavaScript to access the > local file system. I couldn't find one. Sorry. But that doesn't mean there > isn't one. > > -- Russ > > > On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 7:53 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]>wrote: > >> I *like* it! Probably the most universal, and can even be run locally. >> Possibly even as a bookmarklet. And luckily for all of us, the DOM >> standards let javascript access user input in a fairly elegant way. >> >> BUT: the pipe paradigm of unix shells allows you to have the input be a >> file and the output to be piped into a file or another program. Our browser >> approach only lets us use literal text in and out. No big deal, but I >> wonder if there's a hack to get directly at the javascript language within >> the browser, and to use it like a command line command. >> >> I think, however, your answer is likely the winner. >> >> -- Owen >> >> >> >> On Dec 27, 2008, at 8:01 PM, Russ Abbott wrote: >> >> JavaScript sure seems like a simple solution. Here's a primitive version >>> of >>> one possibility. >>> >>> <html> >>> <head> >>> <script> >>> function transform(input) { >>> output.value = "transformed version of:\n" + input; >>> } >>> </script> >>> </head> >>> <body> >>> Copy the text to be translated into this text area and press "Go". <br /> >>> <textarea id = "input" cols = 100></textarea> >>> <input type=button value="Go" >>> onclick="transform(document.getElementById('input').value);" /> >>> <br /> >>> <textarea id = "output" cols = 100></textarea> >>> </body> >>> </html> >>> >>> -- Russ >>> >>> >>> On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 5:59 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> On Dec 27, 2008, at 4:04 PM, Marcus G. Daniels wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>> What language could I write a script in (no graphics, simply text in, >>>>> >>>>>> text out) that would run on all the computers used by Friam folks? >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> Javascript! >>>>> >>>>> >>>> Well, it is certainly lurking on all of our systems that have a browser, >>>> that's for sure! But if I just send folks a javascript file, how are >>>> they >>>> to execute it, and how are they to specify stdin/out? >>>> >>>> I really am serious here: I'd like to know which scripting language and >>>> runtime is reasonably likely to be on our systems. Its pretty grim if >>>> there's not a reasonable answer! >>>> >>>> The specific stunt I'm looking at takes a text file in, and converts it >>>> to >>>> morse code. Also the reverse, take in morse code and translate it to >>>> ascii. >>>> Dead simple and kinda fun. But to share it with others, I'd like a >>>> script >>>> that could work on most systems. >>>> >>>> -- Owen >>>> >>>> >>>> ============================================================ >>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >>>> >>>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >>> >> >> >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
