Lagi Pittas wrote:
We are still awaiting the open language that was promised.
Now I don't know exactly how that will work in the sense is it going to be
all or nothing - a free for all where you can add/change syntax more like
a souped up preprocessor, or allow for change to a different language
(python, Ruby, php on a per procedure/function basis or the easier first
step a script only stack in the language of your choice.
Everyone can have their cake and eat it.
I don't know when OL will be available or how it'll work. I only know
one thing it won't support, based on an earlier conversation with Mark
Waddingham: R-style arguments (similar in many respects to CSS values).
In R, things like the plot command have reasonably-useful defaults, so
that you can just pass in data with nothing else and get a useful result.
But if you want to tailor it you pass arguments in as name-value pairs,
e.g.:
plot(cars, type="o", col="blue", ylim=c(0,12))
What I like about that is I'm free from having to remember parameter
order, which also means I don't need to add a hundred commas if I want
to pass in a value for the 101st param.
With name-value pairs I can include only the options I want, and in any
order.
Extra bonus points that the purpose of any argument is made explicit by
including its name. If I see "o" I don't need to count commas and guess
about what that applies to, I know very clearly looking at the name
provided with it that it governs the plot type.
This may be even more verbose than xTalk for handlers with just one or
two args.
And as much as I like it in R, I'm not sure I would advocate it in an
xTalk as any sort of necessity. It might be ideal for certain types of
commands (oh how I'd love it with "export"), but is so unusual compared
to most other languages that it may just increase the learning curve for
most folks.
I bring it up here not as a recommendation, but just as a sort of "think
REALLY different" exercise as we consider alternative syntax
possibilities...
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
ambassa...@fourthworld.com http://www.FourthWorld.com
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