Re: Scripting in Gnome

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Fri, 2004-01-30 at 11:15, Jamie McCracken wrote:
> > We already have that -- python and perl
> I mean like VBA and javascript (ie mini-script typeless languages which
> dont require huge libraries like perl and python) as these
> can be easily embedded in apps. Things like the GnomePanel could have

Er, Python/Perl are perfectly capable of this.

> extensions to allow customisation via scripts - E.G an OnMouseOver
> event on a panel button could be made avialable to scripts to say
> allow the button to be highlighted in a different way or the Gnome menu
> to be opened without clicking etc

That's crack.  That last thing we need is to let people make brain dead
broken UI changes like this... ;-)

> 
> >XML is a description language rather than a scripting language.
> XML can contain embedded scripts like HTML does with javascript. 
> Mozilla's XUL is a good example of the future of scripted apps.

Mozilla's XUL is a good example of a web technology, not anything that
should be used in a dedicated local desktop.

> GDesklets is another example all though it is rather limited. What
> we need is a standard way of scripting in Gnome apps with the ability
> to create apps using just XML with embedded scripting as well as allowing
> existing apps to be extended or controlled.

There was a project called Entity iirc that did the XML thing.  Never
took off.  Might be indicative of something.

> 
> MS has an Active/X scripting control which provides Jscript and 
> VbScript to apps so something along those lines wood be good.
> It should be open so that new script languages can be specified
> and used (hence a language definition XML format that I suggested) 

You don't need XML to open things to new languages.  In fact, if you
need any sort of XML at all to use multiple languages, then you have a
broken design.  The API should simply be generic/extensible from the
start (as we *already have* with Bonobo/D-BUS/ORBit/etc.) and thus
automatically usable from any language with bindings.  One just needs to
get apps to embrace this.  I guess the GNOME Office framework has some
code to make this easy and consistent.

> 
> Hope that clarifies what I was trying to say in my original email.
> 
> jamie
> 
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-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.