[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home]
[By Thread]
[By Date]
RE: Style vs. transformation
Subject: RE: Style vs. transformation From: "Reynolds, Gregg" <greynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 16:42:39 -0600 |
> -----Original Message----- > From: Darrin Smart [SMTP:darrin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] > Are there any free implementations of JavaScript (with source)? > Netscape Navigator? Well, real soon now. A naive question (I'm shaky on interpreter implementation): Why not specify the scripting language abstractly, as a collection of functions and datatypes. So instead of stipulating, for example, that the addition operator is infixed '+', you stipulate that the addition operator (whatever it looks like) applied to numeric args sums them and returns a number. Of course you need a reference concrete language (is this too SGMLish?), but conformance would be defined in terms of the abstract grammar and semantics. In other words, why not specify a meta-language from which implementation languages "inherit". I know the obvious objection is that "we" want a one scripting language that will work everywhere. But how hard would it be to then support multiple languages? (The foregoing is not a rhetorical question.) Wouldn't it just be a case of parsing the source, tranlating it into a native form with simple table lookups, and proceding? Speaking as an unreasonable user (writer of scripts) I demand Scheme. But being an equally unreasonable browser, I demand support for JavaScript, Python, and whatever other language web authors may choose. So let the market decide - it's virtually certain that all vendors would stick with javascript, but who knows? I would spend my money on a more versatile browser. XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
Current Thread |
---|
|
<- Previous | Index | Next -> |
---|---|---|
Re: Style vs. transformation, Brad McCormick, Ed.D | Thread | Re: Style vs. transformation, Paul Prescod |
Re: Style vs. transformation, Darrin Smart | Date | Re: Style vs. transformation, Brad McCormick, Ed.D |
Month |