ScriptLimits (was: Rev cgi vs. php)

[Jan Schenkel]

--- Luis <luis at anachreon.co.uk> wrote:
> Dolphin (now unsupported) and VisualWorks. The third
> one I'm keeping  
> to myself for now (there's some IP issues to
> resolve, so I'd rather  
> they are left to their negotiations for now).
> There's tons of others  
> out there, these are the ones I use.
> This really has nothing to do with the dev
> environment as the  
> languages have none of these 'limits'.
> 
> Is Transcript a language or 'the' IDE? (wrt RunRev).
> 
> That's where scriptLimits are a real PITA: These
> languages have no  
> 'line' limits, so the IDE doesn't cripple them.
> There's a big difference between a language that
> encourages  
> conciseness to an IDE that enforces it (ie:
> crippling the language).
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Luis.
> 

Luis,

Dolphin and VisualWorks are IDE's for SmallTalk - and
if my memory serves me well, SmallTalk employs
image-based persistence, allowing the entire 'state'
of the environment to be saved and loaded again.
(Just a mouthful to say that when you open the
Smalltalk runtime environment again, everything looks
just the same as when you left it)
So the environment _is_ the IDE and vice versa.

While this is a very powerful feature, I'm pretty sure
that only a tiny fraction of developers can't live
without it.
Runtime Revolution Ltd needs to protect its product
portfolio - if someone could just take the engine,
slap a modified IDE on it, and then sell it on without
the Mothership earning a dime, pretty soon there won't
be an engine left.

Quite frankly, I don't feel crippled by the
scriptLimits - maybe one day I'll wish that I could
have 20 frontscripts and backscripts, or could load
200 stacks as libraries, but it hasn't happened so
far.
The scriptlimits only apply in standalones, not inside
the IDE - so you can build scripts that are ten miles
long when printed, and the engine will not hold you 
back and will execute everything beautifully, even
when you turn your stack into a standalone.

What software can you not build today under the
scriptLimits for standalones, that cannot possibly be
created with smart use of the message hierarchy (think
frontscripts that check the presence of custom
properties), and that would not be in competition with
the Revolution product?
Actually, don't tell me or other list members: talk to
Kevin Miller and state your business case - if there's
no competition, I'm sure the two of you can negotiate
a license that lets you do what you need inside a
custom engine that doesn't have these scriptLimits.

Best regards,

Jan Schenkel.

Quartam Reports & PDF Library for Revolution
<http://www.quartam.com>

=====
"As we grow older, we grow both wiser and more foolish at the same time."  (La Rochefoucauld)


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