With a mighty <01bc45a2$98f8ec40$0f02000a@gjchome.nis.newscorp.com>,
gjc@delphi.com uttered these wise words...
> There have been a number of operating systems which emphasize
> language-independant "binary interface" component integration to
> a sufficiently developed degree that multi-language projects are practical
> and robust; however, Microsoft Windows 95/NT seems to have reached
> a significant "breakthrough" level in a way that VMS or AS-400 did not.
Yep, and the latest development is ActiveX (a new name for some old
ideas from MS, i.e. OLE,OCX,etc). ActiveX Scripting is particularly
neat, as it'll mean that Windows should be free of most of these
language wars. Anyone who wants VBScript can have it, anyone who wants
JavaScript have it, and so on, providing that the script language has
been packaged as an ActiveX script engine and your app can use it
ActiveX scripting.
This isn't rocket science, so I'm expecting to see a _lot_ of Windows
apps using it. MS have made sure that it's easy to add to a apps that
use MFC classes. I'm no great fan of MS, but I think that this is an
excellent move, one of the few trully great things that _anyone_ can
do. In this case, it just happens to be MS.
If you'd like to use a language like Scheme to extend to your
favourite Windows apps, it'll be easy. Just take your SCM ActiveX
script engine, and plug it into your favourite app, and bingo! If you
had the source code to the app, perhaps you could've added Tcl, but
not many, if any, vendors will supply that. Perhaps if the app uses
OLE, you could use OLE Automation, but that's a big perhaps. As big as
ActiveX Scripting? Hmm. We'll see.
I think that the Guile people have also got it right, by supporting
more than one syntax. If you prefer a C syntax, fine. If there's some
syntax that you'd like, and it's not currently available, it shouldn't
be too hard to fix it, and other people can benefit from your work,
too. Each additional syntax helps make Guile stronger.
Meanwhile, everyone else picks a specific language and then fights to
the death to continue using it, forcing it on other people, and
generally wasting a lot of time and effort. Who does that help?
Well, Microsoft, for a start. Bill Gates' dream was once to make Basic
the script language for everything (like JO and Tcl? Sun and Java?
Hmm), but MS have now gone beyond that. The reality is that people
want to use the language that _they_ choose, and some people want to
use that language exclusively. Fine, now they can do it.
Isn't it ironic that it's _MS_ doing this, and not Sun? What about
Apple? Perhaps they've been doing this for years, and I've just missed
it - considering how much bickering people do, it wouldn't be hard.
Keep it up, people. You're making Windows stronger by the minute, by
holding everything else back. Good luck to you - you may need it.
--
<URL:http://www.wildcard.demon.co.uk/> You can never browse enough
Martin Rodgers | Programmer and Information Broker | London, UK
Please note: my email address is gubbish.
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