Re: Basic Guide to Scripting Terms?
Re: Basic Guide to Scripting Terms?
- Subject: Re: Basic Guide to Scripting Terms?
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 19:33:52 +0100
Peter Bunn wrote:
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Hello:
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I've dabbled in AppleScript and HTML and am now trying to learn a bit of
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JavaScript, VB Script and ASP. I can now do some rudimentary things in
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all these languages, but mostly I've been learning by taking apart
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examples and putting them back together.
Been there, done that. Well, not with VBS and ASP though... you're well
ahead of me there.:)
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I'm hampered by my ignorance of basic scripting term definitions -
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objects, classes, cases, properties, functions, methods, variables, etc.
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I'd like to find a nice, clearly worded glossary of those terms - even
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knowing their use and function is not the same across all scripting
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languages. A universal guide to basic terminology, I guess, is what I'm
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hoping to find.
Yeah, this would be great. Unfortunately, I don't know of one. Sometimes I
begin to suspect a conspiracy designed to keep all of us non-geeks out of
the playpen so that only the Truly Deserving get to play with the good
toys. But then I put on my anti-microwave tinfoil beanie and all these bad
thoughts go away again.:)
Seriously, it would be such a nice thing to see: something which reduces
all this stuff down to a non-tech level...
Object = a Thing. Around these Object Oriented parts, _everything_ is a
Thing. (Even if you don't realise it.)
Class = a category of Thing. e.g. One class of Things might be termed
"People"; another might be termed "Vegetable"; and so on.
Property = a characteristic of a Thing. Therefore, a "People" Thing might
have a Name property, an Age property, etc.
Variable = a container. You can put Things in them.
And so on. Perhaps even with -< gasp> - diagrams?
Note: if I sound flippant, I shouldn't really be - the lack of friendly,
accessible, non-technogeek material open to Joe Average and co. is all too
short in supply, imho. Looking at how long it's taken me just to get where
I am (i.e. not much further on), I do wish it were otherwise.
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I have the AS Language Guide and will have another look at it, but I've
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found it nearly opaque in past readings. I tried to find something on
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the web, but almost all such offerings are language specific.
ASLG is a very good reference guideonce you've grasped the basics, but it's
no tutorial or introduction.
It would be interesting to see a 'comparison' chart of some sort, where you
could look up both a simple glossary for a term, as well as the equivalent
name used in other languages. Again, I don't know of one which exists,
unfortunately.
has