Anthony: Bison will not be used in the next
Interpreter. Instead, I intend to write my own
parser-generator tool, which will be done in (yes)
HyperCard. Maybe portions in other things, but I doubt
it. It will at least have a pretty, HC front-end.
Alain: Surely Perl would be a much better choice for a
parser-generator tool (e.g. pattern-matching with
GREP), particularly for someone like you Anthony who
is already familiar with Perl. What is more is that
you don't have to forsake your HyperCard interface in
the process because HyperTalk and MacPerl interoperate
quite well.
Anthony: It is named "NuParser" :)
Alain: Of course. It will go well with NuCard if
that's the name that we elect for OpenKard.
Uli: Remember to encapsulate platform-specific code in
an own class. That is, a class XMemory for memory
management, a MacMemory class for Mac-specific memory
management (that can be replaced with another
XMemory-derived class e.g. if you want to compile for
Windows). This way, unportable code will require few
changes. Abstraction is the concept to use. Thanks,
autographs later. <g>
Alain: Bravissimo! I like it. It makes me think of
the MacOS with its managers and all of that.
Anthony: LOL. It'll probably use malloc/free.
Alain: Standard ANSI C methods for memory management.
A solid choice (probably).
>>Q. Don't you care that it will be slower?
>>A. No.
>>Q. Why?
>>A. Because the parse will be done once, at script
>>save. If it takes 1-2 secs to save a script, big
deal.
Alain: Good answer!
> It's not my goal to fragment the xTalk language
> (at least not yet)
Alain: I am not sure who wrote this (Uli or Anthony)
but I am intrigued. Sounds like someone (besides
myself) is considering a MAJOR rewrite of HyperTalk
and lots of changes for HyperCard too. I have been
brainstorming this intensively for the last 4 days
(though i have been doing this on-and-off for a decade
now). One inevitable conclusion is that 100 percent
HC-compatibility might be un-advisable, after all.
Alain: A wise person once wrote that every act of
creation is always preceded by an act of destruction.
>From the ashes of our dying HyperCard (caterpillar),
OpenKard will emerge with renewed vigour (butterfly).
The OpenKard stage will be quite different than its
previous incarnation -- for the better, I say. Kind of
like a Pokemon, I suppose! ;-)
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