Re: [MacPerl] Interfacing to AppleEvents

[Tom Pollard <pollard@schrodinger.com>]

On Mon, 16 Jun 1997, Paul J. Schinder wrote:
> In fact, I'd love for someone to define "scripting language".  The
> definition would have to be pretty convoluted to exclude MacPerl, IMHO.

Not at all.  To me, a scripting language is a language in which you can
naturally specify a sequence of actions, that you would ordinarily execute
'by hand', in a 'script'.  All Unix shells, more or less, constitute
scripting languages in this sense.  Tcl, when it's embedded in an
application, is a scripting language in this sense.  Because the Mac has
no standard command-line interface (it's graphically oriented), these
models have to be modified for the Mac.  There, AppleScript and Frontier
are real scripting languages for the Macintosh because they let you
control AppleScriptable applications in a way that's very closely tied to
their standard gui interfaces.  

Under this definition, MacPerl is no more a scripting language than C is. 
You can just as easily concoct a "DoAppleScript" function in C as in
MacPerl.  In both cases it's just as foreign to the basic language. 
Contrast this with Unix shells and Tcl.  To me, Perl is an very nice
high-level programmining language, but I don't get any extra thrills by
trying to pretend it's a useful scripting language for the Mac. 

This definition isn't convoluted at all.  As far as I can see, any less
rigid definition of "scripting" would be so inclusive as to encompass all
high-level (I'm just trying to exclude assembly) programming languages.
I'd love to see a concrete definition of a "scripting" language that
included perl but excluded C.  Perl is almost a drop-in replacement for C
for most user-level applications (that I'd write).  With Matthias' efforts
at providing mac toolbox support, it's getting closer and closer to
replacing C outright.

Cheers,

Tom

PS: I'm amazed that Matthias hasn't reprimanded me for starting this
discussion. 

PPS: I wouldn't call awk or sed scripting languages either.
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W. Thomas Pollard                                  Schrodinger, Inc.
pollard@schrodinger.com                       http://www.schrodinger.com/
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