Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!husc6!ogccse!afoster
From: afoster@ogccse.ogc.edu (Allan Foster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: XFCN/XCMD string in LSC C v3.0
Message-ID: <2442@ogccse.ogc.edu>
Date: 23 Apr 89 20:57:50 GMT
References: <1567@Portia.Stanford.EDU> <2810@pegasus.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: afoster@ogccse.UUCP (Allan Foster)
Organization: Oregon Graduate Center, Beaverton, OR
Lines: 36

In article <2810@pegasus.ATT.COM> ech@pegasus.ATT.COM (Edward C Horvath) writes:

> ...When you get right down to
> it, XCMDs are basically a hack. Lets not worry too hard about whether
> we're following all the compatibility rules.
>
>=Ned Horvath=

Sorry Ned, but here I have to disagree!

XCMDs in their current implementation are a Bit of a hack, but they
are still very useful and important to extending not only HyperCard
but an increasing number of other applications as well.  

I see this as a good thing since other developers are going to force
Apple to come up with a good way to implement XCMD bundles.  If Apple
doesn't then WE WILL!  Just cause HyperCard started this whole thing
does not mean that they OWN the whole Idea!

My suggestion to this problem is to have a new resource type (maybe
XBDL?) that is the description of a xcmd bundle.  This is similar
to the bnld resource in an appl, but can also contain arg descriptors
for reminders to developers.  They can be removed if space is tight,
but at least XCMD users would have an idea of what params to give it!

Anyway nice to hear from you again!

Regards

Allan Foster -- GURU


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