Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!acd4!mja
From: mja@acd4.acd.com ( Mike Allard         )
Subject: Re: what are your UNIX-NeXTStep conflicts (was Re: UI idea)
Message-ID: <1991Jun4.182701.5776@acd4.acd.com>
Organization: Applied Computing Devices, Inc., Terre Haute, IN
References: <1991Jun3.050426.28427@math.ucla.edu>
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 91 18:27:01 GMT

In article <1991Jun3.050426.28427@math.ucla.edu> barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes:

[stuff deleted]

>Here is another major UNIX-NeXTStep clash:
>
>(11) The GUI is not accesible from shell scripts
>

[more stuff deleted]

>
>As for (11), I hope they eventually extend the GUI and IB to
>use with shell scripts. After all, just as shell scripts are 
>often much more convenient for little taskes than c programs,
>so would GUI shell scripts be much more convenient than 
>full Apps for many little tasks. At the very least, shell scripts
>should be able to open input windows, so that one needn't have a window
>open to run a shell script that takes input.

When NeXT originally sent out System Release 2.0, they included an
Upgrade2.0.app.  The interesting thing about Upgrade2.0.app was that
the majority of the logic of the program was not stored in the
executable, but in '.tcl' files.  Tcl looks like it is a cross
between csh and C.  These scripts were interpreted at runtime.
I know, because I needed to change the functionality of the Upgrade
app so that it correctly upgraded our NetBoot clients (which were
setup in a slightly nonstandard way, in /clients/hosts instead of
in /clients, but that's not the point.)

The point is:  these tcl scripts interacted with NextStep in some
rather interesting ways, by doing such things as popping up panels,
creating matrices, reading the state of buttons, and such.

This is more or less the kind of functionality that Barry is describing,
and exactly what many of us would like to use, yes?  Tcl had such
neat constructs as arrays and subroutines and private data structures
(I think).  And, it let you play with NextStep from an interpreted
script, rather than from a compiled executable.

Any clues on this tcl product, or its NeXT implementation?  I am very
interested, as are probably quite a few others.  Let me know through
e-mail if you have any info on tcl.  I'll post if I find anything out.

Mike Allard, CS Student on Summer Internship
Applied Computing Devices, Terre Haute, IN
acd4!mja   or   mja@acd4.acd.com

These postings and opinions are strictly my own and not my employers's,
etc. etc.