> Michael Fair : Apache, Linux, and Perl are state of
> the art today, but they are not the ultimate future.
Alain : So the Dweebs are not taking over then ???
> Michael Fair : Without going into a religous war
> about it, the MacOS isn't going anywhere for a while
> and any mac-specific tools created we will be able to
> take with us into a Linux world.
Alain : I'm not switching, that's for sure ! MacOS.
> Michael Fair : Linux, Apache, Perl are worth the
> learning curve ...
Alain : I am familiar with PERL. It's un-necessarily dweeby but
nonetheless good. User-friendliness seems to be taking a back seat
these days, eh !
> Micheal Fair : ...unless we plan on having an
> OpenCard engine ...
Alain : We could start with the MetaCard engin.
> Micheal Fair : ... with all capabilities of Perl text
> processing anytime in the near future, in which case
> dump Perl.
Alain : There exists an OSAX such that AppleScript can do GREP just
like PERL.
> Micheal Fair : A language is used to express
> programs, programs do stuff, if you can express a
> program in a language you already know, without major
> performance/maintenance hits, use the one you know.
Alain : How about ... AppleScript ? It is easy, freely available, quite
similar to HyperTalk, system-wide, object-oriented, open-ended, etc.
And, in its new incarnation, it is PowerPC native and thus 5 times
faster than it used to be. Apple has also vastly improved AppleScript's
CGI handling capabilities.
> Micheal Fair : If I have my way about it OpenCard
> will replace Perl, and even C++.
Alain : Me too! But, to be more precise, I think that OpenCard will
become the ideal INTERFACE for the development of programs. These
programs will be scriptable in OpenTalk ( or whatever we eventually
call our scripting language ). My hope is that this scripting language
will be similar and compatible with AppleScript ... because the main
gist of AppleScript is to use generic verbs like GET that each
object/app can implement differently.
> Micheal Fair : The future programming isn't
> translating words, thoughts, and descriptions into
> cryptic symbols,...
Alain : User-friendliness has indeed been aimed primarily at end-users
that have little or no interest in software development. It's time us
developers got our share of user-friendliness too !
> Micheal Fair : ... it's in speech recognition and
> Natural Language Processing.
Alain : Ultimately ... but I think that we're a long way off from that
Holy Grail. These type of behaviors will require Artificial
Intelligence.
> Micheal Fair : Make the computer do all the work. Let
> us programmers design systems and let the computer
> figure out the details.
Alain : Right on! This is my vision of software systems development as
well. Let's discuss this some more.
> Michael Fair : Which reminds me that I wanted to make
> a recommendation to the programming team that we
> contact the GNOME folks and add AppleScript-like
> functionality to GNOME using OpenCard. Really add
> some value to the OS.
Alain : This is a REALLY hot idea, Micheal.
> Micheal Fair : Can you imagine how easy it would be
> to create simple administrative tools like user
> managers in OpenCard? Have it be easy enough so any
> joker who can write OpenCard can do GNOME programming
> because an OpenCard interpreter is just as standard
> on the GNOME platform as Corba is?
Alain : Programming for the rest of us, eh !
> Micheal Fair : AppleScript is a primary part of the
> MacOS from what I can see.
Alain : Most decisively.
> Micheal Fair : AppleScript may not be very sexy in
> most people's eyes ...
Alain : What do you mean ? Why is this so ?
> Micheal Fair : ...but it gives programmers a common
> thread which they can all rely on when communicating
> with other apps.
Alain : That's what is really hot about AppleScript.
> Micheal Fair : This is an important step in freeing
> up the commercial world to adopt OpenSource stuff.
Alain : Each object/app masks its implementation by interfacing with
the other objects/apps by using a generic messaging system. Thus,
different objects programmed differently can work together seamlessly
without source code modifications. Hence, it is perfect for integrating
open source programs with current proprietary programs, seamlessly.
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