Here comes XOS

[MisterX]

Hi all,

I wanted to personally thank Dan Schafer for his sponsoring for a new RR
studio renewal to continue the XOS project. 
Thanks to all others as well that have encouraged, manifested enthusiasm or
proposed their help. 

The least I can do is explain what this XOS is about. What is it, what it's
not... Keep it short! Right?

So, what is XOS? 

Just a simple extra OS to manage data across RunRev, your apps, your OS,
your files, your nets buddies, etc... 

If there is anything important about data and programs, it's usually the
data! Well, XOS has a surprise for you, you will see data and making data
programs completely differently soon! At least I hope so ;)

The big question I've been trying to answer: Is is OOP or not?

Languagewise, C++ or smalltalk, java or any oop wanabee, no because the
transcript language doesn't lend itself to oop type of programming. It
doesn't need to! 

The message hierarchy?

This one though is forcedly based on the RunRev messaging which is kind of
OOP. What was missing was/is/will/can be added though but I haven't seen the
need other than for delegation or exception handling in the pure sense of
the term! 

So what are Objects and how are they based in our "objectual orientation"?

The object-ism in the XOS language is based on different levels at which we
humans contextualize the semantics of the word object. Uh, sorry, the object
in xos just depends on your need. It can be the text, the field, the card,
the stack, the file or the category acoustic or other denominations you
choose (you can always script more of these!). 

An object is also a variable word (not a variable although there is a logic
to variable and parameter naming) or a handler's name or part of it! Hence
the object class is any function like createobject or deleteCard, readfile,
finduser, etc... You can instantiate or overide the function but it's not
guaranteed something will happen if no "exceptions" are not handled but in
any case, the function will try to best help you out even if you don't
furnish the right parameters. 

Are there classes, Objects, links, indexes, pointers? 

They simply arent until you create them. These can be property dependent or
based on/in a library.

The first object I created in xos was the card, uh, the object which is a
card. 

Concept?
A card is an object, so is a stack. A word is an object, so is a list.
Working from there contextually in the programming sense has been the
foundation for XOS... And the talk of OOP applies nicely in most forms which
was a welcome sign in the book "The Best of Booch". It is about oop modeling
and project development in all stages, his question is whether any language
really differs or embodies the oop phylosophy while differing in language.
And I believe XOS does - OOP has been an inspiration... Lest I script it
naturally. 

Inheritance is a nice OOP counter-example which doesn't really apply to XOS
although it is "generalized" into the polymorphismic class "IT" such as
CreateIt "car", "aproperty","avalue". 

The conversion to MC from HC is strange because it opens many doors. One
them is templates... But Im now faced with a nice distributed system that
might have to redistribute itself... ;)

To all those that have supported my efforts in the past, here comes my
best...

The script behind XOS? ;)

In the beginning, 
There was an object
More started becoming
Soon it was a project

What was a list too big
Could be picked by a script
So any could read or dig
one needle or a ship

More on this OOP talk later... I hope to put in some quotes from "The Best
of Booch" to exemplify the Object orientedness of XOS and RR in the right
context.

Cheers and thanks again Dan!
Xavier
--
Get nitrous acceleration for your RunRev projects
http://Monsieurx.com