[Pythonmac-SIG] appscript terminology caching

[has]

Paul wrote:

>  > I'm not sure I agree with this.  I'm pretty sure that compiled
>  > applescripts do not depend on the terminology of the applications they
>  > talk to
>
>Absolutely they do. It's not something you "agree to" or not. It's a fact.
>Compiled applescripts DO depend on the terminology of the applications they
>talk to.

Woah - steady there, tiger. :)

Bob is correct, even if his original statement is a bit ambiguous*. A 
compiled AppleScript does not require access to an application's 
terminology in order to run; only compilation and decompilation use 
it.

* i.e. Bob's comment makes sense in context of the discussion, which 
is about how appscript should translate between terminology keywords 
and AE codes at runtime. Personally I understood it just fine, though 
as past master of the faux-pas myself I can easily see how it could 
be read wrongly. Honest misunderstanding; nothing anyone should get 
steamed about, least of all on my account. :)



>I think that a good working policy
>would be to take has's word for everything to do with how AppleScript works.

Err, I _definitely_ wouldn't go that far myself <g> (see past AS 
mailing list posts ad-infinitum;). I've certainly never seen 
AppleScript's inner workings and what I know about them I've gleaned 
partly from folk who have but mostly from obsessively observing 
external behaviour and waiting for my hypotheses about why it works 
the way it works to break (or be broken). Given all the effort sunk 
into this, it's probably true I understand AS better than 99.9% of 
its users - but then the great majority of AS users aren't hugely 
computer literate; nor (quite rightly) could they give a flying crap 
about what's really going on (as long as it does what they meant it 
to do).

One thing I am pretty certain of: if anyone is looking for a good 
role model for how Python's application scripting support should 
work, at this stage AppleScript is just about the last thing you want 
to pick. I've already nicked every good idea it has so whatever's 
still left is the absolute dross, and you don't wanna touch that. ;p


Basically, we're more or less on our own from here in, and stuck with 
outdated, obtuse and ill-fitting AppleScript-biased system APIs that 
we just have to make the best of. Our best hope is that the result is 
good enough to garner a solid and sizeable userbase, which we can 
then use to lean on Apple to make their APIs a bit more egalitarian, 
if not outright chummy, towards the more Unix-oriented languages such 
as Python and Perl. I see all this as an opportunity though: for 
MacPython to come up with the best damn scripting support of _any_ 
language, and become _the_ role model for others to follow. Hence 
this discussion, to shake out the good ideas from bad and see if 
anything's left standing by the end of it. <g>

Regards,

has
-- 
http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/