John Delacour wrote:

> >>I think we've all learned to live with AppleScript as it is
> >
> >Hey, who this "WE"? Whatchoo think I been doing the last two  
> years? ;p
>
> Reinventing Usertalk?  I'm not bothered about language.

Ah, my bad. I missed the memo that said this thread was moving from a  
discussion of AppleScript language bugs to a full-blown tirade  
against the underlying architecture and third-party products as well.


> Do your efforts provide any crutches for this lame creation?  Do they
> enable the user to add a scripts menu to the app, as Frontier did, or
> to understand Apple events, no matter what mechanism you use to
> generate them?

I did start working on my own AEOM framework a while back, but  
stopped once I realised it's a non-trivial problem and the only  
sensible approach would be to implement some scriptable applications  
first and then extract a framework out of that. Given the time and  
work that would take, I'm more inclined to put up with the existing  
Cocoa Scripting framework despite its problems - I'm not being paid  
to do it, after all.


> AppScript, Mac::Carbon, Ruby bridges -- fine!  What difference does  
> it make if nothing is listening?

Here's what bridges do: they provide an opportunity for attracting  
new users, particularly professional programmers (most of whom would  
rather gouge out their own eyes than ever touch a language like  
AppleScript), to application scripting and Apple event IPC. You  
complain that developers don't provide quality scripting interfaces  
in their applications, but why should they bother when the audience  
for it is [perceived as] a small and probably dwindling number of  
amateur hacks using a broken, obsolete, painfully underpowered and  
undersupported scripting language?

Quality frameworks and whatnot are important sure, but ultimately it  
all boils down to how many bums you've got on seats. Bridge the P- 
languages and ObjC, and you've greatly increased the potential market  
for application scripting features - not least amongst the same folks  
who have to implement those features. You want to make application  
developers enthusiastic supporters of this technology, either give  
them large cash sums or turn them into enthusiastic users themselves.  
There's no guarantee that providing more bridges will ever make a  
worthwhile difference, but not providing them definitely won't.



But hey, enough about me - what about you? You've been deeply  
dissatisfied at the state of things for many years now, so you've had  
plenty time to cook up some pretty badass solutions yourself. Perhaps  
a rip-roaring Cocoa Scripting replacement; show the Man how it  
_should_ be done? Or even just a nice set of O'Reilly articles  
teaching developers how to implement scripting support that doesn't  
suck? Maybe just the occasional bit of sunny-faced evangelism for the  
handful of one-man third-party projects that are at least trying to  
make some sort of difference? Still, if you find that the piquing and  
whining is more effective, then by all means keep up the good work.  
Just don't direct it at me, because that will make me testy.

has
-- 
http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/