Re: Developer's Tools (was Re: Archives and Web Site)

["Ian Bicking" <bickiia@earlham.edu>]

> Should it have some kind of scripting language? If so, what should this script be
> like?

A scripting language would be nice, particularly if done right.  [I 
suppose this is an argument against HTML...]

It would be nice if the scripting language not only could control the 
behavior of the resulting pages/cards/things, but also could control 
the behavior of the program itself.  This would make it possible to 
create templates that could provide a lot more direction for the 
student, automate tasks appropriate for certain kind of content, 
etc.  Even if the end-user seldom used scripting directly, it would 
make extension much easier and would make it possible to join 
authoring content and using the content, which I think is an 
important idea for something like this.
 
> Correct me if I'm wrong but these scripting languages tend to be based around
> natural language albeit simplified. Wouldn't we want to hide the language from
> the user if they don't want to see it anyway? The average user should be able to
> setup a presentation which tests the user's responses without needing to know any
> scripting language.

This is exactly the sort of thing that I would hope would be possible 
by having a powerful enough scripting language.  The application 
designer wouldn't have to predict all the potential directions that 
people would want to take the program.  And an extension 
language is usually a lot easier to deal with than making a plugin or 
directly editting the source code.



--
Ian Bicking <bickiia@earlham.edu>