Re: Briskets / English
Re: Briskets / English
- Subject: Re: Briskets / English
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 11:49:10 +0100
Matthew Stuckwisch wrote:
>
Paul Skinner wrote:
>
> I'm trying to see why you want to be able to do that.
>
>
>
> on dr's Mario(nursePeach)
>
> --Let's try to compile this
>
> end dr's Mario
>
>
I was using that to show that in current Applescript, using a dot in a
>
handler doesn't work, therefore implementing it would be possible.
I think you missed Paul's point: your example was _not_ a valid handler
definition, regardless of whether it used "of", "'s" or "." syntax.
Your test should have been to see if something like 'foo.bar' could compile
in AS (it won't).
However, a much more certain way of finding out would simply be to look up
the ASLG to see if a "." operator exists in AS (it doesn't) or whether "."
is permitted within normal identifier names (it's not).
>
> Disregarding my confusion at your example code, I don't see any clear
>
> advantage to writing in that syntax. It sure isn't very AppleScripty.
>
> So what's the reason it would be a good thing?
>
>
Because lots of people have mentioned liking it?
Lots of people like braces for blocks and semicolons as statement
delimiters. Does this mean AS should allow these too?
<rant>
[Note: this isn't aimed at anyone in particular here - unless anyone thinks
it is - and I've been very good and ignored this thread up to this point,
but this is one of those issues that just pushes my buttons a bit too often
to let slide completely.]
There appears to be an all too common misconception amongst many
programmers that the world would be a better place if all languages would
all just look and work exactly the same as C++. The notion that different
languages might be designed differently for good reasons - e.g. to perform
different sorts of tasks or to cater to different types of user - seems to
escape more than a few of them.
Terse syntax, strong typing, fixed size arrays, etc, etc, etc exist to
serve a certain range of needs. English-like syntax, dynamic typing,
dynamic sized arrays, etc, etc, etc exist to serve another range of needs.
Pick whichever one fits your own set of needs and go with it. Don't pick
the other and then sit around complaining because it doesn't work exactly
like [favourite language] which you normally use, because that's pretty
much the whole damned point and you're just making yourself look a fool for
missing it.
Now for my Modest Proposal...
ANYONE who indulges in religious wars as to why:
- braces/blocks is the One - True - Way, and anyone using the other is a
t0t4L LU53r, d00d
- dynamic/static typing is the work of the devil and anyone who says
otherwise should be stoned and burned immediately
- any language other than doesn't exactly comply with their own personal
taste/whim/L33t self-image should be banned, its authors assassinated and
its users rounded up in internment camps for a permanent "re-education"
should IMMEDIATELY be:
- beaten over the head with the Get-A-Clue Stick for a good twenty to
thirty minutes (or until they shut the f*** up)
- made to code using non-procedural/OO languages such as Haskell and Prolog
for the next six months at least
- barred from /. for all eternity.
If we also throw in a few introductory classes on basic personal hygene and
How To Talk To Girls, then I think there's every possiblity of reforming a
great many such individuals for the betterment of society and the future in
general.
Alternatively, we could just shoot them.
</rant>
Meantime, I can think of a ton of better things that the AS engineers could
be doing than faffing about complexifying the AS syntax any more than it
already is. Like: beating it into total consistency, draining the keyword
quicksand and refilling it with real concrete, fixing every speed
sump/stupid stack overflow/glitch/bug/general weirdness and otherwise
polishing the language until it positively glows.
The AS team seems to be a dedicated bunch of guys with their heads bolted
on right, and Apple itself seems to be taking AS much more seriously these
days). So I've got every hope that this is exactly what's already happening
- even if nobody's actually telling anyone about it outside of an NDA. [Can
you say "WWDC"?]
Fingers crossed.
has
--
http://www.barple.connectfree.co.uk/ -- The Little Page of Beta AppleScripts
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