This is what I think would make a great Rev Scripting Conference series.
On 7/9/05, Jon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well done, Alex! > > :) > > Jon > > > Alex Tweedly wrote: > > > > > I've been playing with writing externals for Revolution lately. It's > > been interesting. I'm very glad to know I can do it, and should I ever > > need to, I will. But I can't say it's been a lot of fun. Writing C > > code is frustrating and not very productive in the best of > > circumstances (e.g. supported by a symbolic debugger, protected > > processes, etc.) In the circumstance of running an external with Rev's > > IDE (where many errors cause immediate termination of the IDE, with no > > diagnostic info provided at all, far less any chance to debug), it is > > very unproductive. So while it's good to know that externals are > > possible for me, I also know that they are to be avoided if reasonable > > alternatives exist. > > > > So I started looking for alternatives ..... > > > > Reasons to write externals in the first place. > > 1. to get access to hardware or other facilities not otherwise available > > 2. to get higher performance (e.g. matrix ops, image processing, etc.) > > 3. to take advantage of existing library packages > > 4. other significant but less common reasons > > > > As described above, I don't like C (far less C++). The language I do > > like (assuming Transcript isn't an option) is Python. > > > > Python is, in many ways, similar to Transcript. They're both scripting > > language, dynamic types (or typeless), associative arrays, etc. - > > that's largely why I like them both. But they're also quite > > different, and complementary, in many ways. So, without falling into > > the trap of becoming a comparison between the two languages, I believe > > that a number of the reasons for writing an external would equally > > apply to using Python. > > > > Of course, it would be difficult to write an actual external in > > Python. But I realized that one of the strengths of both Python and > > Transcript is that they have good, simple socket facilities. So I > > decided to try "Remotes" - socket-based Python add-ons to Transcript. > > > > I wrote a small (30 lines) Python server which accepts "commands" over > > a TCP socket, and returns its result over the same TCP connection > > (see the end of the email for the source code of the Python program). > > The "commands" are in fact snippets of Python code; so I can develop > > the Transcript stack and just change the snippets of Python to be sent > > and executed, without even restarting the server. So the whole process > > is as dynamic as Rev usually is. > > > > <snip> > > _______________________________________________ > use-revolution mailing list > use-revolution@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution > _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution