On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Omer Zak wrote:
> 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.
And, if he chooses either Tcl or Python, some support from me.
(Ducking and hiding from those Perl addicts)
(I believe most know *my* personal preferences)
> 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.
Right on, brother! Think "Emacs, but with a language less horrid then
elisp"!
(Waiting for the lightning from RMS to reach him)
> 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.
Let me suggest you do this the other way around: put in your Engine *only*
the heavy weight stuff, such as the buffer data structure implementation,
the rendering. Anything invoked from a menu should be a Python (or Tcl, if
you choose the dark path) command. Note that if you choose Python,
implement you buffer data structure as a built-in Python object and do
the right kind of (small amount of) magic, you don't have to think about
"file format" bull: Python's pickle (akin to Java's Serializable) will
take care of the rest. This is pretty powerful stuff! Which is why I would
hardly recommend...
> 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.
Because you'll deny yourself the convenience you're giving your users.
Instead, package up Python (or Tcl or Perl) *with* your word processor,
and have it built as part of the make procedure. That way you side step
evil configuration management issues easily enough.
--
Moshe Zadka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
http://www.oreilly.com/news/prescod_0300.html
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