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Argument in favor of scripting (was: Re: A wysiwyg hebrew word processor)




On Thu, 9 Mar 2000 matan@svgalib.org wrote:

> 
> On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Omer Zak wrote:
> 
> > 1. Make as clean separation as possible between the SVGAlib based display
> >  engine and the rest of the word processor.  This will allow someone
> >  else to replace the SVGAlib by whatever engines needed for plain
> >  X-Window, KDE or Gnome.
> 
> This is planned. The next release will include separation of the drawing
> functions, so it will be easy to replace them with ones for Xlib, fbdev or
> something else.

Good!

> > 2. Support the use of a scripting language (such as Tcl, Perl or Python)
> >  interpreted by an embedded interpreter.
> >  This will allow other people to turn your word processor into a
> >  sophisticated and complicated and feature-rich one by adding their own
> >  commands (implemented as scripts).
> 
> This I do not plan, and I believe it is too early to think about such
> features.

I think this is the first thing you should support.  Especially as it is
not that hard and I believe that you'll get cooperation from Chen Shapira.

If your wordprocessor is in any way decent, then scripting capability will
let other people add their favorite features, until your wordprocessor is
practically as useful (even if not as feature-laden) as MS-Word.

All you need is to ensure that any action which can be initiated by the
user (and probably also some internal actions) - is implemented in its own
procedure (ith arguments as necessary).  Then let Chen worry about
invoking your procedures from the interpreter.

I am sure it'll not be so difficult to add compile-time options to your
makefile, so that a lightweight version (which doesn't rely upon Tcl or
Perl or Python libraries, but lacks scripting capability) can be created
by setting a configuration-time option in the makefile.

                                             --- Omer

   "MS-Word keeps thinking it knows what I'm gonna do next and tries to
   help me.  I've lived with my wife for 27 years and SHE can't do that.
   What makes MS-Word think it can?"             Bill Mullins
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