[Chicago-talk] [OT]: Mac script/OOP language
Andy_Bach at wiwb.uscourts.gov
Andy_Bach at wiwb.uscourts.gov
Fri Mar 4 11:15:45 PST 2005
Not strictly perl but I know there are a couple Mac folks here and this,
it seems, is something worth looking at - at least the manual is quite
impressive (132 pages!).
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
It's not the Smalltalkiness of it; it's not the
Cocoaliciousness of it; it's the funky APL sideburns that's
made F-SCRIPT so tempting. F-Script is a scripting language
for MacOS X that takes that OS's object frameworks and slips
them into a Smalltalk syntax, then left-hooks it all with an
inexplicably neat multiple receiver syntax called OOPAL which
lets you use things called "message templates" to fire off the
same message to an array of objects, and ponce around like you
just don't need loops or iterators any more. Soon you'll
realise that this is brilliant, yet there's almost nothing you
can do with F-Script. But wait! Along comes F-Script
Everywhere that - in theory - allows you to browse and probe
ObjC objects in any running application. And, finally, when
you tire of that, the author hints that the next version will
give F-Script the ability to create new classes of its own,
which is what it desperately needs to become a first-class
scripting citizen. In the meantime, come for the OOPAL, stay
for the OOPAL, leave taking the OOPAL with you to your own
weirdo language.
http://www.fscript.org/
- the manual is pretty readable
http://www.fscript.org/download/FScriptGuide.pdf
- and page 25 is where it starts getting funky
Andy Bach, Sys. Mangler
Internet: andy_bach at wiwb.uscourts.gov
VOICE: (608) 261-5738 FAX 264-5932
First Law of Bicycling:
No matter which way you ride, it's uphill and against the wind.
----- Forwarded by Andy Bach/WIWB/07/USCOURTS on 03/04/2005 01:14 PM -----
Dave Green <tips at spesh.com>
Sent by: ntknow-admin at ntk.net
03/04/2005 11:54 AM
To
NTK now <ntknow at ntk.net>
cc
Subject
NTK now, 2005-03-05
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Tips, news & gossip to tips at spesh.com - with NTK in subject line, cheers.
"Michael Hulme says part of the reason why the mobile is so
successful is that it takes us away from where we are..."
- Mobiles 'part of social fabric' shocker, muses Click Online
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/4297993.stm
...as ingeniously symbolised by those giveaway "mobile" and
"telephone" parts of its name
>> HARD NEWS <<
largesse accrues
Don't do popular things! Stop it! The government's Green
Paper on the BBC caught the corporation in the "manic" stage
of its traditional bi-polar swing. As the BBC continues to
frenzedly chase ratings, the BBC was warned that it was
getting too commercial, and should return to producing
high-quality output untouched by popularist taint. Next
charter, in 2016, of course, the BBC will be warned that it
is too elitist, and should start trying to pander to popular
tastes. But in the mean time, what of THE CREATIVE ARCHIVE,
the BBC's plan to free at least some of its content for
remixing under a more liberal license? "Likely to be popular
with the public", warns the government, and rumbles that the
it should be the very first experimental subject of the new
BBC Trust's "public value and market impact tests". With
commercial radio already leering hopefully at the Beeb's
radio back catalogue, will the Archive be the first piece of
meat thrown to the "stop being so popular so we don't have
to compete" crowd? Or will those keen commercial types
realise that, when it comes to "opening up new markets",
everyone getting it for free always beats one company paying
for access?
http://www.bbccharterreview.org.uk/pdf_documents/bbc_cr_greenpaper.pdf
- search for "archive", just like we did
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/05_may/26/
- "Doctor What, Everything?" is our current snappy name for it
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/4309325.stm
- who else gives you PDF file sizes to three decimal places?
Of course, for those who might consider the BBC license to
be "dirty money", there *are* other ways of subsidising the
release of freely licensed works. Jason Clifford's UK FREE
SOFTWARE NETWORK, for example - the ISP that spends all its
profits in donations to free software. The blood and sweat
and toil of Clifford's obsessive altruism has now borne
fruit, and the Association for Free Software is handing out
the first round of money. Just write your grant proposal and
send it off to them. There's UKP1500 to give away, with
hopefully more to come. Yay! Free as in money!
http://www.affs.org.uk/grants/
- "we *strongly* prefer formats usable with free software"
http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?b=02002-11-22&l=54#l
- the story so far
http://www.ukfsn.org/finance.html
- and what he promised, open accounts
>> EVENT QUEUE <<
GOTOs considered non-harmful
The ravaged US economy creates favourable conditions for
attempting the fabled "Grand Slam" of the GDC GAMES DEVELOPERS
CONFERENCE (from Mon 2005-03-07, San Francisco, from $195),
SXSW INTERACTIVE (from next Fri 2005-03-11, Austin, Texas,
from $275), and the O'REILLY EMERGING TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
(from next Mon 2005-03-14, San Diego, California, from $425).
But for anyone sticking in the blizzard-swept UK, let's have
our own crazy cutting-edge celebration right here, possibly
under the aegis of NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK (from next Fri 2005-
03-11, assorted times and venues), featuring yet another hee-
hee-hilarious IG NOBEL TOUR (Oxford, Warrington, Nottingham
plus an already-sold-out one in London), and unofficially
culminating in our old techno-artist pals JON THOMSON and
ALISON CRAIGHEAD returning - in triumph! - to DORKBOT LONDON
(from 7pm, next Wed 2005-03-16, State51, Rhoda St, London E2
7EF, free), ably supported by a folksonomic black cab "derive"
entitled "Taxi-onomy" (you see what they've done there?) and -
of course - some RSS poetry.
http://interactive.usc.edu/archives/003955.html
- aren't all GDC delegates "wandering monsters", in a way?
http://2005.sxsw.com/interactive/
- with blinking Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Sterling, "Wonkette"
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech/
- roll up for the Wired Editor and his amazing "Long Tail"
http://www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotlondon/
- no, not the "John Thomson" off "The Fast Show"
http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/NationalScienceWeek/
- "compose a poem" not quite the "science" we had in mind
>> ANTI-MEMES <<
there's smoke, flames, http://dohthehumanity.com/
reassuringly authentic-looking not-pasted-in-at-all screen:
http://itsafe.gov.uk/about/picture_800.html - vs a scientist,
thinking deeply: http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/event.asp?id=2953
... spot the test data: http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~kohler/pubs/
vs http://isotropic.org/uw/papers/chicken.pdf ... clearly one
way of stopping phishers, anyone else from sending you mail:
http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk/ ... which is a spoof portal
which an amusingly-named Eastern European web design agency?:
http://www.wankadoo.co.uk/ , http://hulan.cz/redakcni-system/
... for one week only - "one of these not SFW like the others"
http://images.google.com/images?q=%22Big+Cook%22, plus your
regular http://www.google.com/search?q=pgp+%22key+singing%22 ,
"pedantric", "greasepoof", "freshmean", "enchanced" and
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22duel+carriageway%22 ...
reader Rod Begbie greases that slippery slope a little more:
http://groovymother.com/archives/2005/02/28/dave_winers_wor.html
>> TRACKING <<
sufficiently advanced technology : the gathering
It's not the Smalltalkiness of it; it's not the
Cocoaliciousness of it; it's the funky APL sideburns that's
made F-SCRIPT so tempting. F-Script is a scripting language
for MacOS X that takes that OS's object frameworks and slips
them into a Smalltalk syntax, then left-hooks it all with an
inexplicably neat multiple receiver syntax called OOPAL which
lets you use things called "message templates" to fire off the
same message to an array of objects, and ponce around like you
just don't need loops or iterators any more. Soon you'll
realise that this is brilliant, yet there's almost nothing you
can do with F-Script. But wait! Along comes F-Script
Everywhere that - in theory - allows you to browse and probe
ObjC objects in any running application. And, finally, when
you tire of that, the author hints that the next version will
give F-Script the ability to create new classes of its own,
which is what it desperately needs to become a first-class
scripting citizen. In the meantime, come for the OOPAL, stay
for the OOPAL, leave taking the OOPAL with you to your own
weirdo language.
http://www.fscript.org/
- the manual is pretty readable
http://www.fscript.org/download/FScriptGuide.pdf
- and page 25 is where it starts getting funky
>> GEEK MEDIA <<
get out less
TV>> the competition for "TV's Worst Tech Show" continues to
hot up, with CLICK ONLINE (8.30pm, Sat; 4.30pm, Sun, BBC News
24) - which last week chose to pronounce "moblog" as "mob-log"
- increasingly under threat from the sub-"Tomorrow's World"
explanations of THE GADGET SHOW (7.30pm, Fri, C5), this week
thrillingly comparing Linux to Microsoft Windows... Saturday
is black helicopters night, in the company of not-bad Mel
Gibson mind-controller CONSPIRACY THEORY (9.15pm, Sat, C4)
plus Clipper-chip hacking romp SNEAKERS (11.20pm, Sat, ITV)...
still, we all question the nature of reality - but do we
*really* question the nature of reality? - ponders one of the
best-ever episodes of THE MIGHTY BOOSH (11.40pm, Sun, BBC2)...
it doesn't look like we'll be seeing Wendy Grossman appearing
in HIGH SPIRITS WITH SHIRLEY GHOSTMAN (10.30pm, Sun, BBC3) any
time soon: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20281 ... in
case you were wondering, C4 *has* embarked on yet another
back-slapping orgy of X-RATED: THE TV THEY TRIED TO BAN (10pm,
Sun, C4), concluding with the implicit assumption that
advertising per se is in some way defensible or worthwhile in
X-RATED: THE ADS THEY COULDN'T SHOW (10pm, Thu, C4)... while
Mode 7 "Gagfax" graphics were once considered primetime
entertainment, reveals COMEDY CONNECTIONS' look back at "Three
Of A Kind" (11pm, Mon, BBC1)...
FILM>> the West may have largely failed to intervene in the
country's horrific 1994 genocide but - to our eternal credit -
we've made by far the best movie about it in HOTEL RWANDA
( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : Contains moderate war images and
strong language)... the makers of "Dude, Where's My Car?" were
at least cogent enough to rename their latest stoner odyssey
from the US-burger-chain-centric "Harold & Kumar Go To White
Castle" to the rib-tickling HAROLD & KUMAR GET THE MUNCHIES
( http://cndb.com/ : [Malin "Earth: Final Conflict" Akerman is]
wearing shorts and a blouse with only three buttons)... and
the filth continues in ideological sexologist biopic KINSEY
( http://www.cndb.com/movie.html?title=9+Songs+%282004%29 :
Male nudity is not really my thing, so I can't give this
a full four-star rating, but if you happen to be a Peter
Sarsgaard fan, and were dissapointed with "The Center of the
World", this is definitely the movie for you)... plus next
Fri's widely-covered-elsewhere concert-movie-with-a-difference
9 SONGS ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ : Contains frequent strong
real sex)...
>> SMALL PRINT <<
Need to Know is a useful and interesting UK digest of things that
happened last week or might happen next week. You can read it
on Friday afternoon or print it out then take it home if you have
nothing better to do. It is compiled by NTK from stuff they get sent.
Registered at the Post Office as
"comparatively homophone-free"
http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/blog.php?article=610
NEED TO KNOW
THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK.
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cheers.
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