Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!pyramid!voder!apple!winkler
From: winkler@Apple.COM (Dan Winkler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: I'll Never Make You Declare Variables
Message-ID: <7574@apple.Apple.Com>
Date: 6 Mar 88 17:56:38 GMT
References: <1149@cpocd2.UUCP> <7500@apple.Apple.Com> <1007@pur-phy> <7414@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: winkler@apple.UUCP (Dan Winkler)
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 8

Any change I make to HyperTalk from now on is guaranteed to be upward
compatible.  I might add new features, but I'll never break old
scripts.  Therefore, I'll never require variables to be declared.  I
may provide an optional way to declare them, perhaps with a type, so
that I can do type checking for you or, when I get to writing a
compiler, generate better code, but to uniformly require it would break
existing scripts.  Similarly, I'll never disallow unquoted literals,
although I may provide a way for you to turn them off when you want
to.