At 11:52 AM -0600 on 5/28/99, Scott Raney wrote:
>I'll put it on the to-do list for MetaCard, but I'm not
>thrilled by the fact that the new package Henry Spencer developed that
>includes this feature is about 8 times the size as the package
>MetaCard currently uses.
Ouch.
>> I don't see why not. It's an imperitive... It tells the compiler: "Include
>> whatever [into my source]"
>
>But *when*? When the application starts up? When the stack opens?
>When that object opens? When it gets its first message? What happens
>when the user edits the script with the #include? Or edits the file
>(or the script of the other object) that gets included?
...
>So it's when the stack gets loaded? Compiling every script in the
>stack at that time could get expensive...
No. Compiled scripts would be stored. A recompile would only happen if the
modification date on the include file changed.
>The big problem is distinguishing "compile-time" operations from
>"run-time" options. xTalk is different from almost all other
>languages, including most other scripting languages, because there is
>no "main" routine.
It's really not relevant when "include" happens. It just must happen before
any script in the included file is executed (obviously).
>
>> Another thing, though. With the HT compiler, one could make semi-protected
>> libraries for distribution.
>
>You can do this now with MetaCard, which encrypts scripts in password
>protected stacks. Decrypting them takes time compared with just
>reading in a tokenized representation, though. On the other hand,
>it's probably more secure: Ever seen a Java byte-code decompiler?
>They're amazingly effective at recovering the original source...
Q: How do you run the scripts? Do you not have to decrypt them first? And
if MC can decrypt them...
BTW: The OT compiler would be very easy to decompile. It would, however,
protect from the casual observer.
