[REBOL] Re: help with mail attachment please
From: dk-photo:home at: 15-Aug-2001 11:48
Holger Kruse said:
>REBOL/View on Mac DOES support opening a script with OpenDocEvent (basically
>clicking on a script icon, causing View to be start and execute the script),
>but this does not help in passing arguments, because MacOS does not appear
>to support anything resembling "command lines".
>
>
>No, it is more complicated than that. Part of the problem is that MacOS
>does not allow multiple instances of an application to run simultaneously,
>i.e. unlike all other operating systems it does not support a model in
>which an application is started with certain arguments such as a script
>name, does its work, and then quits, and multiple such instances can run
>in parallel.
>
>Instead MacOS forces an application to multiplex internally, based on
>"document"
>handles. This may be fine for GUI-heavy applications which sit in an event
>loop most of the time, but it is a big problem for applications which are
>primarily "processors" (e.g. interpreters) and have an inherently stateful
>execution model. This is why REBOL/View on Mac clones itself during
>installation, allowing multiple instances of REBOL to run at the same time,
>as different binaries. Apparently this is the only "solution" to this problem
>on MacOS.
>
>
>The next problem is that MacOS, unlike Unix, Windows, AmigaOS, BeOS,...
>apparently has no system() call (or anything similar), i.e. does not
>allow interaction with other applications in an industry standard
>fashion, but requires proprietary methods (AppleScript again, I assume).
>
>
>If MacOS HAD a shell that provides Posix-like features and API then you
>COULD do it with REBOL. It is not REBOL's fault that MacOS does pretty
>much all aspects of computing differently than everyone else :-).
>
>REAL AppleScript support (along with support for other platform-specific
>scripting languages, such as ARexx) is something that is on our list.
>Unfortunately at the moment other things have higher priorities. Adding
>to the difficulties is that currently we do not have a real Mac expert
>on staff at RT.
The above statements only serve to prove my point. I reiterate:
What we are talking about is NOT a minor feature. If *nix platforms had
no command line, you would implement the needed connections in whatever
way required.
Macs do things differently. So what! They require a different kind of
implementation, i.e., AppleScript. So what! That is the way it is done on
a Mac. And despite the fact that OS X (*nix based) does have a command
line, it STILL uses apple events and AppleScript. AppleScript will
continue to be the way such things are done on the Mac platform, by all
but the most die-hard.
Your complaint that you haven't made Rebol 'the same' on the Mac because
'the Mac is different' is at best weak and certainly leaves Rebol's
cross-platform
and "universal" claims ringing quite hollow indeed.
In short, what you are saying is: "Rebol is universal and cross-platform,
except on the Mac, because on the Mac it is inconvenient."
Depending on whose statistics you like to use, the Mac holds from 5% to
10% of the computer market. It is reasonable to assume, since a
disproportionately high percentage of web sites are served from Macs, and
because Rebol is a network-centric language, that interest in Rebol on
the part of Mac users would at the very least parallel the Mac's market
share. Which means that at least 5% of the people subscribed to this list
ought to be Mac users or at least Mac-centric. Based on what I've seen so
far in the way of responses, I'll bet the figure is substantially lower.
In fact I wouldn't be surprised to find that I'm the only one, or one of
only two or three. If I'm right, then you have already lost your battle
to become a universal/cross-platform language, because one of those
platforms, at your own insistence, has chosen to ignore you!
Do I think Rebol is better than Perl and other languages? Absolutely, and
by a wide margin. Is the concept of Rebol brilliant? Is Carl Sassenrath a
genius? Unequivocally. Will I be using Rebol? No... the people who make
Rebol don't think it is important to make Rebol useful to me because I
want to use it on a platform that is non-conforming. While the concept of
Rebol is visionary, at least this one aspect of its implementation is
not, which I believe dooms Rebol to end up on the scrap heap with the
HUNDREDS of OTHER brilliant, visionary new languages already there.
David Kachel
theMac Workshop
http://www.macworkshop.net
Democracy is five wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the election.
-unknown
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain
a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty
nor safety.
-Benjamin Franklin
Millions of sniveling cowards shivering in the corner,
begging government to protect them from every threat,
real and imagined,
have stolen liberty from the rest of us.
A government drunk with power, gleefully complies.
-David Kachel
...(paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin)
