On Sun, May 28, 2000 12:11 PM, Karl Ramberg <mailto:karl.ramberg at chello.se>
wrote:
>While we are at this...
>I've been thinking about the programming praxis and the way it's bound to
a
>literal
>language in some strange peculiar way. The way a human language is used is
>seldom
>precise and accurate and totally down to fact, like a programming
language,
>still we
>cling on to the print, load, show etc. to make the computer do the things
we
>want.
>Another issue is that a swedish person don't use those words in daily
language
>anyway,
>it's a variant of english.
>    If one uses a image based language the human translates the
>image into a meaning full word in ones native language.
>Then you have one written language for every spoken language.
>Correct me if I'm wrong but I think for example China
>has a myriad of different spoken languages but only one or two written
ones.
>One problem is constructing new images, meanings and bind all this
together but
>it's
>a fascinating thought. Just like music and mathematics, write once run
>anywhere.
>

The AppleScript people put a LOT of thought into this. For instance, I just
a bunch of actions in the MacOS Finder and recorded this script (no typing
involved). See if you can tell what it would do. At one point, you could
automatically translate this script into Japanese or French AND still run
it on any  Mac OS that was localized for any language. 

tell application "Finder"
	activate
	make new folder at desktop
	select folder "untitled folder"
	set position of selection to {192, 540}
	make new folder at desktop
	select folder "untitled folder 1"
	set position of selection to {320, 540}
	move selection to folder "untitled folder"
	select folder "untitled folder"
	open selection
	select folder "untitled folder 1" of folder "untitled folder"
	move selection to desktop positioned at {{320, 604}}
	select folder "untitled folder"
	move selection to folder "untitled folder 1"
	close container window of folder "untitled folder" of folder "untitled
folder 1"
	select folder "untitled folder 1"
	delete selection
	select trash
	open selection
	close container window of trash
	empty trash
end tell


Seems to me that with the properly defined  vocabulary and syntax of a
"SmalltalkScript," one could do this kind of thing relatively easily, if
you designed it with this capability in mind from the start.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If everyone lived with a sense of wonder, their lives would be filled with
joy."
-Last words of Doug Henning, 5/3/47 - 2/7/00
-------------------------------------------------------------------------