Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga.tech:190 comp.sys.amiga:17303
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nuchat!peter
From: peter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AREXX the low/medium level standard - NEXT THE HIGH LEVEL
Message-ID: <893@nuchat.UUCP>
Date: 7 Apr 88 02:10:49 GMT
References: <8647@eddie.MIT.EDU>
Organization: Public Access - Houston, Tx
Lines: 36
Keywords: Read me if you want to influence an existing commercial product.

In article <8647@eddie.MIT.EDU>, gary@eddie.MIT.EDU (Gary Samad) writes:
> The discussions have ranged from the highest levels to the lowest
> (and I must smile about the fact that some people were seriously examining
> the subject of FindPort being too slow, while the messages contained
> IFF format structures, the parsing of which would dwarf the time needed
> to do a FindPort! :-).

I must take exception to this statement. I am the originator of the current
IFF-based approach, and I'd like to point out that it does not require
any parsing whatsoever. It has an array of tagged pointers which can be
"parsed" in a few statements...

	for(i = 0; i < imsg->NumEntries; i++) {
		switch(imsg->IPCEntries[i].ie_Type) {
			case 'REXX':
				SendMsg(MyREXXPort, imsg->IPCEntries[i].ie_Ptr);
				imsg->IPCEntries[i].ie_Ptr = 0;
				break;
			case 'BMAP':
				DisplayBitMap(imsg->IPCEntries[i].ie_Ptr);
				break;
			...
		}
	}

Secondly, the HIGH-level IPC protocols for the machine already exist: namely
files, pipes, and clipboards. Rather than create a whole new namespace, let's
concentrate on tools to make that work better.

Finally, as I said before... I'd go for REXX if there was a freely re-
distributable dumb REXX server available. No, I'm not going to write
one... I've got enough on my plate already.
-- 
-- a clone of Peter (have you hugged your wolf today) da Silva  `-_-'
-- normally  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter                U
-- Disclaimer: These aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.