HyperCard Mailing List

I guess the community is right now not really aware about the true
achievement of Rebecca Bettencourt's OpenXION. OpenXION as a contemporary
xTalk version brings HyperTalk ( ... and Hypercard ) on the same level of
well established scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Lua, JavaScript et
al. That's remarkable, no doubt!

It's also a benefit that OpenXion is implemented as a shell script language
without any GUI support. This way we as a community are challenged to
develeop a new and maybe more appropriate graphical interface for this
universal and powerful successor to Hypertalk.

Trying to recreate HyperCard as it was during the 80-ies and 90-ies of the
last millenium can't be a target anymore. It has been tried and we all know
and we all know where it leads us to: to Runrevs LiveCode, an impressive
but incredible baroque IDE and scripting language which simply can't
recreate the elegance and ease of use HyperCard once delivered. I've bought
licenses for all versions of LiveCode the recent years but to work with
HTML, JavaScript, CSS and MangoDB or CouchDB feels way more appropriate. As
it is way easier to get contracts for.

A similar Problem with SuperCard and now the remarkable beta of StackSmith.
Great software, but the aesthetics of the interfaces, the overall look and
feel and the the handling of the IDEs is incredible "retro".

Probably this was also the problem of TileStack. To have HyperTalk available
inside the browser is phantastic but if all you get is a interface-design of
1986 one will have to admit that there's a basic flaw. It's impossible to be
ignored. I'm absolutely convinced that TileStack as an HyperTalk/xTalk
alternative language as Processing.hypertalk like processingjs would have
been a success.

For this reason I've spent the ast week integrating OpenXION into the
OpenEndedGroup's Field: http://www.openendedgroup.com/field/wiki a
sophisticated graphical environment bringing together the best of
Finite-State-Automata scripting environments like Processing, Nodebox,
Shoes, etc. and Flow-based/Node-based programmig environments like Max/MSP,
VVVV, Quartz Composer, ...

http://buckybook.tumblr.com/post/7420993699/very-much-to-my-own-surprise-hypercard-seems-to-be

To have HyperTalk aka OpenXION available within such an environment is
capable to pave new ways into a future of xTalk languages. Instead of
recreating something that will stay old anyway an Java implemented, object
oriented HyperTalk inside a multi-purpose graphical programming environment
could prrov the world the true power of our preferred system.

Thanks to the generosity of Rebecca Bettencourt ( cause of the availability
of the OpenXION source code ) it was straight forward to embed HyperTalk as
an almost native scripting language inside of Field.

It's great to do top notch stuff again with HyperTalk!

/tom

At 22:16 +0200 2011.07.13, Tom Fuerstner wrote:

>I guess the community is right now not really aware about the true
>achievement of Rebecca Bettencourt's OpenXION. OpenXION as a contemporary
>xTalk version brings HyperTalk ( ... and Hypercard ) on the same level of
>well established scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Lua, JavaScript et
>al. That's remarkable, no doubt!

I understand that it's quite an achievement, but I don't understand
how, if at all, I can use it.

For example, could I invoke it from a command line in Terminal? Can I
pass parameters? Could I write a script that would, from the
parameters, open a file, process it, and write the result?

And if I could do all of that, would it run faster than that script
in a HC stack?

If the answer to that last one is yes, then I'm _really_ excited.

Art Evans

> And if I could do all of that, would it run faster than that script
> in a HC stack?

Well, of course. Making an interpreter faster than HC's is trivial for a skilled person like Rebecca, and that doesn't even take into account the fact that we have something like one thousand times the resources we had then.

Dan

1.Q: For example, could I invoke it from a command line in Terminal?
A: Yes! Use the "xion" command in your terminal: e.g.: xion fileName.xn

2.Q: Can I pass parameters?
A: Yes! Use the "xion" command in combination with the "-D" argument.
e.g.: xion -D globalName=value fileName.xn
.... then globalName gets handed over as a global variable to your script
code within the fileName.xn file.

3.Q: Could I write a script that would, from the parameters, open a file,
process it, and write the result?
A: Yes!
e.g.:
on field var, varName
put "/tmp/f" & varName into varPath
open file varPath
write var to file varPath
close file varPath
end field

4.Q: And if I could do all of that, would it run faster than that script in
a HC stack?
A: Yes with a remark:
When using OpenXION from the command line it will always take a while to
load the Java VM. That's a well known delay to every Java developer.
But the processing of the HyperTalk code/script itself is as fast as in
HyperCard.
Exactly for this reason I've embedded OpenXION into a Java GUI called Field..
The upcoming days a detailed tutorial regarding the use of HyperTalk inside
Field will be published.

Final remark: As OpenXION makes HyperTalk available within a Java VM it also
opens up the whole world of sophisticated Java frameworks to HyperTalk. But
there is no doubt that HyperTalk without HyperCard's GUI is something to get
used to ;-)

Regards,

/tom_fuerstner



On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 12:13 AM, Arthur Evans Jr
<evanssl21@[redacted].netwrote:

> **
>
>
> At 22:16 +0200 2011.07.13, Tom Fuerstner wrote:
>
> >I guess the community is right now not really aware about the true
> >achievement of Rebecca Bettencourt's OpenXION. OpenXION as a contemporary
> >xTalk version brings HyperTalk ( ... and Hypercard ) on the same level of
> >well established scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Lua, JavaScript et
> >al. That's remarkable, no doubt!
>
> I understand that it's quite an achievement, but I don't understand
> how, if at all, I can use it.
>
> For example, could I invoke it from a command line in Terminal? Can I
> pass parameters? Could I write a script that would, from the
> parameters, open a file, process it, and write the result?
>
> And if I could do all of that, would it run faster than that script
> in a HC stack?
>
> If the answer to that last one is yes, then I'm _really_ excited.
>
> Art Evans
>
>
>



--
Tom Fuerstner

-------

(c)2010 ><{{{{{{> tom surfs along!

-------

Keep it private! So, please use my PGP public key for important messages!

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

It sounds a lot like the LiveCode CGI engine.

Jacqueline Landman Gay | jacque@[redacted].comHyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com

On Jul 16, 2011, at 1:09 AM, Tom Fuerstner <i.script@[redacted].com wrote:

> 1.Q: For example, could I invoke it from a command line in Terminal?
> A: Yes! Use the "xion" command in your terminal: e.g.: xion fileName.xn
>
> 2.Q: Can I pass parameters?
> A: Yes! Use the "xion" command in combination with the "-D" argument.
> e.g.: xion -D globalName=value fileName.xn
> ... then globalName gets handed over as a global variable to your script
> code within the fileName.xn file.
>
> 3.Q: Could I write a script that would, from the parameters, open a file,
> process it, and write the result?
> A: Yes!
> e.g.:
> on field var, varName
> put "/tmp/f" & varName into varPath
> open file varPath
> write var to file varPath
> close file varPath
> end field
>
> 4.Q: And if I could do all of that, would it run faster than that script in
> a HC stack?
> A: Yes with a remark:
> When using OpenXION from the command line it will always take a while to
> load the Java VM. That's a well known delay to every Java developer.
> But the processing of the HyperTalk code/script itself is as fast as in
> HyperCard.
> Exactly for this reason I've embedded OpenXION into a Java GUI called Field.
> The upcoming days a detailed tutorial regarding the use of HyperTalk inside
> Field will be published.
>
> Final remark: As OpenXION makes HyperTalk available within a Java VM it also
> opens up the whole world of sophisticated Java frameworks to HyperTalk. But
> there is no doubt that HyperTalk without HyperCard's GUI is something to get
> used to ;-)
>
> Regards,
>
> /tom_fuerstner
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 12:13 AM, Arthur Evans Jr
> <evanssl21@[redacted].netwrote:
>
>> **
>>
>>
>> At 22:16 +0200 2011.07.13, Tom Fuerstner wrote:
>>
>>> I guess the community is right now not really aware about the true
>>> achievement of Rebecca Bettencourt's OpenXION. OpenXION as a contemporary
>>> xTalk version brings HyperTalk ( ... and Hypercard ) on the same level of
>>> well established scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Lua, JavaScript et
>>> al. That's remarkable, no doubt!
>>
>> I understand that it's quite an achievement, but I don't understand
>> how, if at all, I can use it.
>>
>> For example, could I invoke it from a command line in Terminal? Can I
>> pass parameters? Could I write a script that would, from the
>> parameters, open a file, process it, and write the result?
>>
>> And if I could do all of that, would it run faster than that script
>> in a HC stack?
>>
>> If the answer to that last one is yes, then I'm _really_ excited.
>>
>> Art Evans
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Tom Fuerstner
>
> -------
>
> (c)2010 ><{{{{{{°> tom surfs along!
>
> -------
>
> Keep it private! So, please use my PGP public key for important messages!
>
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>
>
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>
>
>
>