taoscript-lang

[Taoscript-lang] Tao development progress

[Limin Fu <fu....@gm...>]

Hi,

During the past weeks, I have made some progress in the development of Tao,=
=20
including splitting subindexing operations from the numeric array types and=
=20
starting to implement multi-threading supporting, simplifying the interface=
s=20
for extending and embedding Tao, and supporting scripting in non-english=20
languages. In particular, the last two are almost done.

Now the interfaces for extending and embedding are very simple, and easy to=
=20
use, because the interfaces are abstracted as pure virtual class, and all=
=20
the internal Tao data types are subclassed from these pure virtual class. S=
o=20
most of the Tao data objects can be directly passed to and from C++ modules=
,=20
and with abstract interfaces these Tao objects can be easily manipulated in=
=20
C++ modules. Only two _very_small_ header files taoBase.h and
taoPlugin.hare required to build a loadable C++ module, no need to
link to additional
libraries.

The embedding of Tao is even simpler than extending. The kernel of Tao is=
=20
compiled into a dynamic loading library, which are also accessable through=
=20
abstract interfaces defined in a header file. It's also true that one can=
=20
embedding Tao with only 4 _very_small_ header files _without_ linking to Ta=
o=20
library! One can have a look into file taoMain.cpp as an instance for=20
embedding.

For non-english languages, Tao allow users to provide a set of alternate=20
keywords in any languages as an alternate keyword file ( *.akw ). As a=20
result, one can write Tao script in any language he/she prefers (I have=20
tried in Chinese, it works well. And this feature was done in a few hours!)=
.=20
The only requirement is that the character encoding of the akw file should=
=20
be the same as the encoding for the source file.

This file can be provided to the Tao interpreter by option -k, if this=20
option is not present, a default akw file with the same name as the source=
=20
file is searched in the current directory. akw file should include two=20
columns, for example,

class ClassInChinese
routine RoutineInChinese
...

By providing this file to the interpreter, one can use keyword=20
"ClassInChinese" instead of "class". However, "class" is always available a=
s=20
the keyword.

All these features are only available in the CVS version of Tao.

Cheers,

FU Limin

Re: [Taoscript-lang] Tao development progress

[Josef 'J. S. <ju...@gm...>]

Hi!

At Tue, 17 May 2005 17:15:04 +0200, Limin Fu wrote:

> class    ClassInChinese

Klasse!

I should explain this: 'Klasse' is German for 'class'. As an
exclamation it means 'Great!' :->

Problem: How to describe the character encoding used? Suggestionq an
initial line using the comment character of most scripting languages
as the first character reading something like this:

# charset=utf-8
# charset=iso2022-cn
# charset=iso8859-15

The 'charset=' was taken from HTML.

Josef 'Jupp' SCHUGT

Re: [Taoscript-lang] Tao development progress

[Limin Fu <fu....@gm...>]

Hi!

On 5/18/05, Josef 'Jupp' SCHUGT <ju...@gm...> wrote:
>=20
> Hi!
>=20
> At Tue, 17 May 2005 17:15:04 +0200, Limin Fu wrote:
>=20
> > class ClassInChinese
>=20
> Klasse!
>=20
> I should explain this: 'Klasse' is German for 'class'. As an
> exclamation it means 'Great!' :->
>=20
> Problem: How to describe the character encoding used? Suggestionq an
> initial line using the comment character of most scripting languages
> as the first character reading something like this:
>=20
> # charset=3Dutf-8
> # charset=3Diso2022-cn
> # charset=3Diso8859-15
>=20
> The 'charset=3D' was taken from HTML.


If the encoding for the keyword file and script file are the same, there is=
=20
no need to specify the charset, the interpreter doesn't care what they=20
encoded, it just compares the bytes directly when necessary.=20

Indeed, it would be nice if it can allow users to specify the charset=20
explicitly, but to do this, it requires a decoder for each charset to map=
=20
different charsets to a standard charset. So far I don't know how to do it,=
=20
I don't know if it's possible to use the same decoders used by web-browsers=
.

However, it should be easy for people to use the same charset in the keywor=
d=20
and script files, since all systems and editers have some kind of default=
=20
charset for themselves. Even if some files happened to have different=20
charset, one can use web brower to open it, and copy&paste in an editor to=
=20
save in certain charset.

FU Limin