license issues (was mystery exception)

[Alex Rice]

On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at 10:58  PM, J. Landman Gay wrote:
>
> The script limitation is the one, single, sole, solitary, and only 
> protection that Runtime has.

I understand.

> There's also the issue of abstract versus reality. In the 16 or more 
> years in which I have been writing x-talk scripts, I can honestly say 
> I have never once needed an 11-line "value" function. I can't imagine 
> the convoluted script that would require something like that.

I agree in general. It's not an inconvenience for me.

But there are plenty of legitimate uses for dynamic compilation, 
otherwise the eval-like commands (do,value) would not exist in 
transcript/perl/ruby/lisp/scheme/rexx/tcl and others!

There was a whole generation of AI researchers and LISP programmers who 
learned that self-modifying code is a way to do some pretty cool stuff. 
I'm not really one of those people, but I think it's worth noting.

Alex Rice, Software Developer
Architectural Research Consultants, Inc.
alrice at ARCplanning.com
alrice at swcp.com