Re: [MacPerl] I'm in MacWeek

["Paul J. Schinder" <schinder@pjstoaster.pg.md.us>]

irons@espresso.hampshire.edu (Nat Irons) writes:
}
}I do not think applescript's appeal would disappear if faced with the
}threat of a fully OSA-happy Perl -- AS syntax gets the job done for a lot
}of folks, and as that infoworld article points out, we don't hear about it
}because it's often a competitive advantage for users to keep its successes
}quiet.  It's not a beautiful language, but it's more than serviceable.

For one thing,  AppleScript is on every Mac with an OS version >= 7.5.
It's kind of like knowing Bourne sh: you always know it (or a workalike) is
there, when nothing else may be.  It's the only good reason I can think of
that an ordinary Mac user should learn it.  But it's frustrations and
weaknesses are manifest, and I ran into one of them yesterday when writing
a script: the Stuffit Deluxe dictionary was poor, and I was only able to
get the proper syntax from one of their example scripts.

}
}OSA-happy perl would sure bring some grins to my neck of the woods,
}though... I haven't even figured a good way to call perl scripts from
}usertalk scripts yet, and while usertalk is better for text manipulation
}than AS is, it still ain't no great shakes.  I miss perl (and bbedit)
}constantly when I'm working in frontier.

Can't the glue builder in the Commerical Developers Suite make a servicable
MacPerl glue?  All you really want is a DoScript that can return values,
right?  MacPerl certainly has an aete, so you can at least give it a try.

In re OSA Perl, I was under the impression that Matthias had concluded that
Perl didn't make a very good OSA language for reasons I don't know (not
knowing much about OSA).  And I was suprised yesterday to see Chris say
something along the lines that "MacPerl's Apple event support is poor".  I
thought it could now send arbitrary Apple Events?  (The problem being to
figure out what events an application supports, and providing an interface).

}
}  -nat
}
}
}
}***** Want to unsubscribe from this list?
}***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch


--------
Paul J. Schinder
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 693
Greenbelt, MD 20770
schinder@pjstoaster.pg.md.us


***** Want to unsubscribe from this list?
***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch