Re: scripting

[Mark <jamess1 wwnet com>]

gnomefg wrote:
> 
> Hi!
> 
> I'd like to ask if there is a GUI scripting capability in
> GNOME. Like in BeOS or OS/2. If ther isn't, are they
> planning to do it?
> By the way! Linux's (and UNIX's) power is in combining
> programs with pipes and filters by the shell.
> My question might be stupid, but what if this feature would
> apear on the GUI. For exmaple : Imagine that your word
> processor can't handle a format but you have a converter.
> With the mouse you should redirect the "save as..." dialog's
> output into the converter's input.
> OK this was a silly example! You can do it at the shell too.
> But what if your converter is only available like a GUI app.
> But there can be other aspects when this kind of stuff might
> be handy.
> Any comments?
> 

I'm actually working on a language based interface GNOME. Although, I'm
not sure if GNOME foundation has something like this planned in the
future or not. Right now I'm fleshing out the grammer and also
working/thinking about the implementation, so it has a ways to go before
it will be something useable. Scripting will be possible, but I'm
thinking mainly of command line interaction.

A language based interface interests me because of the power and
expressiveness inherent in them. The shell, as you note, has many
programs which can be combined in many different ways to achieve a
result. With the GUI, you must always interact in the limited way the
designer intended. Command line interfaces have also been shown to
quicker than there GUI conterparts. To be fair, they've also been shown
to have a much higher learning curve. I hope to integrate the command
line interface in a way that will complement the graphical interface.

Mark