[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: Smile (appscript terminology caching #2)

[has]

Bob wrote:

>>[2] Incidentally, I really wish Python had something equivalent to
>>Smile's text windows: a really nice implementation, perhaps as a mode
>>on regular script windows, could pummel the older CLI-oriented
>>interpreters into the ground, imnsho. Maybe something Glenn might
>>like to look at?
>
>It would help if you mentioned where to get Smile or a bit more 
>about what it is.

Oops. Forget. :)

http://www.satimage.fr/software/en/index.html

Nominally an AppleScript editor but a highly customisable base 
(Satimage build CAD/CAM solutions). Smile is the free version, but 
they also sell a commercial version, SmileLab, with a bunch of extra 
data analysis and visualisation tools. Once you get past the initial 
quirkiness it's probably the best demonstration of the [mostly 
untapped] potential of OSA I'm aware of: while the application's core 
is C/C++(?), large chunks of it are written in AppleScript, all 
completely hackable, and all tied together via AEM and OSA. I only 
wish many more applications were built like this.

Smile text windows allow source to be entered, selected and executed 
in a persistent context at any time; much less linear than Python's 
interactive interpreter and making proper use of  windows' GUI nature 
(find, styles, drag-n-drop, standard keyboard navigation, etc.). 
Reminiscent of PythonIDE's 'Run selection' option, but more 
interpreter-like; less formal and more flexible in what can be 
selected and executed and where results are output to (end of same 
window, console, some other window) and the window itself is, of 
course, scriptable. Windows can be set to delegate commands to other 
applications and can directly call handlers built into Smile, you can 
select an application keyword and pull up its definition, (albeit 
with varying degrees of success). Windows can have scripts attached 
to them, and the OS 9 version also allowed you to attach buttons, 
themselves with scripts attached, to the window toolbar for further 
customisation. Good bang for very little buck and minimal learning 
curve, since it's basically just a standard text editor. Several nice 
ideas, and plenty potential to come up with something better. Closest 
comparison I can think of is to text windows in Squeak.

HTH

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