Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!mmwst1
From: mmwst1@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Michael M Wagner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: XCMDs do not give you access to the expr. power of C
Keywords: XCMD
Message-ID: <51360@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 21 Oct 90 13:26:38 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Computing & Information Services
Lines: 15

XCMDs are widely believed to allow you to attach an arbitrary
piece of code developed in you favorite language to a hypercard
stack.  The few books that I have read on XCMD make no effort
to point out that this is not true and that there are many things
that you would like to do (like efficient file I/O) that are
not possible.

The source of the problem, as I understand it, is that XCMDs must
be attached to stacks as resources, *but* many language functions
cannot be used outside of applications.  In C these include a
large portion of the ANSI library (file IO, console, to name two
groups).


I'd appreciate any comments or solutions.