[REBOL] Re: help with mail attachments please
From: g:santilli:tiscalinet:it at: 14-Aug-2001 13:00
Hello David!
On 11-Ago-01, you wrote:
DK> I need one running program/script to be able to call a
DK> dormant, non-running script (Rebol) into action.
By "dormant", you mean a process waiting to be awaken, or really
launchung a new process? If the former, REBOL will do it even on
MacOS. If the latter, it is just that MacOS (as I understand from
your and others posts) requires REBOL to support AppleScript, which
is probably something too big for RT to do it provided the market
share.
Again, if MacOS supported easier ways to launch an application
with arguments, there wouldn't be any issue. AmigaOS has an even
lower market share than MacOS, but it was done well so REBOL does
not need special code to get args.
I mean, if I would compile the following C code on the MacOS:
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
printf("Got %d arguments.\n", argc);
}
how could I pass arguments to it? If this is not possible, then
MacOS is broken.
DK> Sorry to be so strident in my postings, but I long ago lost
DK> count, and lost my patience, with languages that make big
DK> promises they never fulfill and then disappear almost
I have found languages like that. REBOL, instead, has done for me
much, much more than what it promised. I can write applications
that will run on almost any platform out there with no changes.
And this does not require a 50Mb download.
DK> You mentioned that Rebol needs as much as a 70 meg partition
(Windows, as bad as it is, does not have "memory partitions". This
is another stupid thing from MacOS.)
Yes, REBOL/View can take up a lot of memory. This is because of
the way it handles graphics. If you know it well, you can code so
that this does not happen.
DK> on a Windblows machine, and the Mac might have similar
DK> problems because of its poor memory management?! It seems to
Probably the script you were trying for attachments was not
written with big files in mind. Usually, one reads the entire file
in memory and then processes it. If this processing requires
copying the file data around, you'll easily get to consume 3-4x
the size of the file.
Using a port instead of reading the file all at once will fix
this. Of course REBOL could have a smart memory management and
read things incrementally, but this would probably be a pain to be
implemented so that it works on all platforms. So, it's much
better to let the programmer decide (this leads to more
efficiency, too).
If you don't know how to make your script consume less memory, you
will probably find people on this list wanting to help. BUT, you
won't get anything with that attitude.
Regards,
Gabriele.
--
Gabriele Santilli <[giesse--writeme--com]> - Amigan - REBOL programmer
Amiga Group Italia sez. L'Aquila -- http://www.amyresource.it/AGI/
