Subject: Adding Java flames to the scripting fire
From: Mo DeJong (mdejong@cygnus.com)
Date: Thu Jul 06 2000 - 02:04:29 CDT
Ok, now I know someone is going to want to flame me for
suggesting this, but how about implementing abi word
scripting using Java?
Wait, here me out before the flames start flying.
Not everybody can agree on a single language to use,
so the only reasonable solution is to not choose one.
Instead, use a framework that supports multiple languages.
It just so happens that IBM has just released an open source
framework call BSF that does exactly that.
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/bsf/
The tool already supports languages like JavaScript, Tcl,
Python, NetRexx, VB, and Perl (mostly implemented in Java)
The trick here is that the JVM would be the "environment"
that would be common to all these tools, so you could pick
which one you wanted to load it at runtime (along with a JVM).
Now we all know that Java got a bad rap because of the
pathetic JVM inside of browsers, but that does not mean it
would not make a good platform to run scripting languages
on. You would also get the benefit of the Java security
model, which would make it harder to write bad
script (I said harder not impossible).
If you provide a "method table" that is accessable at
runtime (like the gimp does), it should not be too
hard to use any BSF supported scripting language
to do whatever you wanted to do in abiword.
Ok, I said my piece, flame away.
Mo DeJong
Red Hat Inc
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