Re: [MacPerl] Using ' instead of :: as the package separator

[Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>]

At 21.56 -0500 2000.03.07, Joshua Juran wrote:
>What if instead of providing (essentially) direct access to the Toolbox
>calls, we had modules that implemented objects, like, say, a Window?
>Window->new() would call [Get]New[C]Window as appropriate, and when it went
>out of scope, (it automatically calls DisposeWindow, and) the window goes
>away.

Well, we do have such functions.  Specifically, we do have a
MacWindow->new.  But they are still somewhat dangerous.  For instance,
Mac::Glue and Mac::AppleEvents::Simple offer a much easier interface to
Mac::AppleEvents.  But they can still crash your machine, because you are
accessing powerful stuff, and if you pass bad arguments to the functions,
you can lose big-time.


>If your script dies, the window goes away.  If MacPerl runs out of
>memory and aborts your script, the window goes away.

That is somewhat difficult to do, and more importantly, we need someone to
do it.  Volunteers are most likely welcome, but you'd have to talk to
Matthias about it to make sure you aren't developing something incompatible
with his plans for the modules.


>directly.  The primary issue that I see is that a new API is called for,
>which means someone has to design (as well as implement) it.

Yep.


>This is on my list of projects to take on if someone doesn't beat me to it,
>but there are many projects ahead of it.  Is anyone interested in using or
>developing such a beast?

I am sure lots of people are, and perhaps everyone on the MacPerl list.  :)

-- 
Chris Nandor          mailto:pudge@pobox.com         http://pudge.net/
%PGPKey = ('B76E72AD', [1024, '0824090B CE73CA10  1FF77F13 8180B6B6'])

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