UserLand: Mac Guys Do it at Runtime [Python/GPL Discussion]

"Apple did such an interface in the early 90s called the Open Scripting Architecture. It's a very powerful idea, and reasonably well implemented, in fact I understand that Python supports it on the Mac, and Frontier treats Python as a first class scripting language, and look at the distance in license philosophy betw Frontier and Python. Stallman can't bitch, but the user can't tell the difference. It appears as if the two programs are the same."

"I've often thought it was sloppy that so much integration in Unix goes on at the source level. It's quicker in the short term, but too heavily reliant on developers. If there were some well-defined interfaces that did runtime binding, users would get exponential power. Why should a spreadsheet only support Python? Don't some people want tcl, and others (shudder) want Perl?"

"Think about it. This might be one of those ideas your Mac brothers could teach you about, and it could revolutionize the open source world and render the GPL less threatening."

Complete Story

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