Re: Applescript support in Mathematica 3.0
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg5264] Re: Applescript support in Mathematica 3.0
- From: jeff at tiag.com
- Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 02:30:05 -0500
- Organization: Told in a Garden
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
bayou at rouge.phys.lsu.edu (James Gregurich) wrote: >I have sent gripe-oriented messages to a fellow at Wolfram research >complaining about the lack of decent Applescript Support in the Mac version >of Mathematica. The lack of AS support makes in very difficult, perhaps >nearly impossible, to integrate Mathematica with other off the shelf >software packages such as databases and graphics packages. > >Is there anyone else who would like to see decent Applescript support in >Mathematica? > >thanks, > >James Gregurich > (LSU physics) While I agree it would be nice to have Mathematica support various APIs of all the different platforms it supports, I think another thing to remember is that it already has a very nice platform independent API called MathLink which some might argue is more important for them to support. I, being a NEXTSTEP user, would like to see the NEXTSTEP version of Mathematica support Distributed Objects API and other APIs of NEXTSTEP, but on the other hand, it isn't all that difficult to have a bridge component act as a "go between" with other NEXTSTEP apps using Distributed Object API and Mathematica which uses MathLink. I have done this quite successfully with various NEXTSTEP apps I have written which link Mathematica to other NEXTSTEP apps using their own APIs... NEXSTEP <- API -- Bridge MathLink/API <- MathLink - Mathematica API --------> Component ------------> Or in your case: AppleScript <- AppleScript- Bridge MathLink/API <- MathLink - Mathematica Apps --------------> Component ------------> So maybe another question is why noone has written many bridge API components for Mathematica using certain common platform APIs and MathLink, and another question is whether Wolfram Research themselves should write them, or just stick with MathLink and let other third party vendors produce these bridge tools. Just my comments on the subject, Thanks Jeff Adams jeff at tiag.com