Re: on neophytes vs perfectionists (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
Re: on neophytes vs perfectionists (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
- Subject: Re: on neophytes vs perfectionists (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:39:31 +0000
Shane Stanley wrote:
On 17/12/08 10:44 AM, "Chris Page" <email@hidden> wrote:
I think it's best to avoid using unnecessary tell blocks.
But here is part of the problem. You have a language that tries to
appeal to
neophytes. It was designed so that things like nested tells and
calling
scripting additions within tell blocks Just Worked -- and then you
say oh
yes, but please don't do it. You're putting the onus for avoiding any
problems it might cause on the wrong person, IMO.
Agreed. There's no point being precious about such things, because
neither AppleScript nor AppleScript users care if code is
aesthetically pleasing or academically correct as long as it runs and
does [more or less] what they want.
This is why I think adding namespaces for osaxen isn't justified, even
though they're the right thing to do in terms of good language design.
[1] The great mass of AppleScripters couldn't care less for their
academic merits, and while the lack of namespaces does occasionally
cause practical problems that do affect users, changing the current
behaviour would affect them a whole lot more. The current behaviour
may be technically flawed, but it's what users and their scripts have
learned to expect.
Regards,
has
[1] In contrast, the reason I advocate changing the way that osax
commands are handled is because the current behaviour affects not just
AppleScript but the entire system, and AppleScript's personal
convenience should never justify risking Mac OS X's overall integrity.
(Those who still feel otherwise would do well to look at Microsoft,
who have spent the last decade trying to undo the damage they caused
by putting some users' every demand for short-term convenience before
all users' permanent safety.)
--
Control AppleScriptable applications from Python, Ruby and ObjC:
http://appscript.sourceforge.net
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