Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!brunix!rca From: rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Macro Language and IB code (was: Re: Preview / YAP / Printing / Digitial Librarian) Summary: textual equivalents of graphical metaphors Message-ID: <69158@brunix.UUCP> Date: 20 Mar 91 01:15:43 GMT References: <1991Mar15.054840.5542@neon.Stanford.EDU> <68871@brunix.UUCP> Sender: news@brunix.UUCP Reply-To: rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science Lines: 36 In article mdixon@parc.xerox.com (Mike Dixon) writes: > > If someone has the time, it should be possible to write an app > that does this. Fist open the nth file, then pump a number of > events to the app that will open up the document (NXJournaler) > such that the document is printed.... > >you might want to try 'open -p' before you go to all this effort... sure, but that does not solve all the problems. (e.g. you can't give a printer as a parameter, or a fax number or a file that should be used to save the ps output in etc.) A nice, uniform macro language, like LISP, that takes over what the shell scripts did for CLI-level problems is missing. I say LISP since that proved useful for many nontrivial things: AutoLisp, elisp etc. A regular script language like Bill Gates Basic-as-embedded-language, does not cut it. Things like recursive operations would be a pain to formulate in such an environment. While we're at it: all the graphics is nice for dummy-users, as is marcro recording of user events. But what keyboard equivalents are to mouse actions, are macro languages to journalling. And would be an Interface Builder that optionally spits out code instead of .nib files. Has anyone ever tried to carefully document a program that uses the Interface Builder? I'd like if I could print out source for what I did there. At least I could follow what was done. e.g. how does a student turn in a .nib file for a programing assignment? Shall the TA test every connection by clicking on them? As good and as practical as .nib files are, there is a need to have some textual equivalent to them. Ronald ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." G.B. Shaw | rca@cs.brown.edu or antony@browncog.bitnet