Do we want "Smilets" (was Re: Facespan versus Smile)
Do we want "Smilets" (was Re: Facespan versus Smile)
- Subject: Do we want "Smilets" (was Re: Facespan versus Smile)
- From: Peter Fine <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 13:39:39 -0500
on 2/24/01 3:54 PM, Emmanuel at email@hidden wrote:
>
At 14:45 -0500 24/02/01, Peter Fine wrote:
>
> You can build a front end for a solution in Smile [...]
>
>
There is an open debate here at Satimage whether or not it would be a good
>
thing to allow building independent "Smilets" (applets with a Smile-like
>
UI).
>
>
Any opinion about this question I shall inject into the debate, and may
>
influence our decisions.
In view of the momentous changes that are looming, this is a very important
question.
What tools are available to front for AppleScripted solutions, especially
those intended for distribution? The answer (AFAIK):
Dialog Director
FaceSpan
REALbasic
Smile (as presently configured)
Dialog Director has a steep learning curve and is not likely to make it to
Carbon/OS X.
FaceSpan has a steep learning curve, resulting to a large extent from
long-standing bugs and glitches that the developer has not addressed; even
if it is ported to the new OS (which remains to be seen), history suggests
that it will have significant defects.
REALbasic needs further improvement to its support for AppleScript and Apple
Events, although a critical mass of useful classes, plugins and utilities is
starting to emerge from the REALbasic community; nevertheless REALbasic is
overkill for many projects that have been done in Dialog Director or
FaceSpan.
As it is now configured, Smile is not set up to support the
creation/distribution of solutions but its history and structure (and
Emmanuel!) indicate that it could be; since Smile is adapted from an app
that is essential to Satimage's business and since it uses the WASTE text
engine, I assume that Smile will go forward with the Mac.
From this very condensed summary, I conclude that it would be very useful to
AppleScript and the AppleScript community if it were reasonably easy to make
standalone AppleScripted solutions with Smile.
So I want Smilets!
Peter