Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
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From: thinman@netcom.com (Technically Sweet)
Subject: Re: Scheme GUI support
Message-ID: <thinmanCy7Avr.5vF@netcom.com>
Organization: International Foundation for Internal Freedom
References: <1994Oct8.115151.17399@news.cs.indiana.edu> <hbakerCxEz5z.CEF@netcom.com> <CxKA9E.CHp@cerc.wvu.edu> <hbakerCxL9vx.AAx@netcom.com> <thinmanCxMJ6q.MI7@netcom.com> <1994Oct17.143820.10770@rosevax.rosemount.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 23:35:50 GMT
Lines: 40

grante@reddwarf.rosemount.com (Grant Edwards) writes:

>Technically Sweet (thinman@netcom.com) wrote:

[ my golden verbiage elided to set a good example ]

>STk is a Scheme implementation that provides some of what you're
>asking for.  It has integrated support for the Tk X11 widget set made
>popular by Tcl/Tk.  I run STk under Solars 2.3 and Linux 1.0.  It
>isn't, however, portable to Windows or MacOS (which is a feature if
>you want to cop an attitude).

Attitude copped: X is a massive crock and I refuse to learn it.
Just let me write graphics in the abstract.  An official Scheme graphics
should be transparent across platforms.  It's also high time for
one; students want to write programs like the ones they're used to.
"Oh look, you can write a 70's style teletype interface!" doesn't
cut it with someone who started on a Mac at age 10.

>The network port idea sounds like a good one, sending strings back and
>forth should be simple enought, but binary data would be a challenge.

Strings, lists in text, and ASN.1 data are interesting.
Binary data is feasible.  AT&T Unix uses a neat trick of
describing binary data streams in C with strings.
"c4lll" describes:

	struct {
		char	w[4];
		long	x, y, z;
	}

It might be possible to use as a binary data I/O spec;
it would speed up transactions between Scheme and C.

-- 

Lance Norskog
thinman@netcom.com
Artisputtingtogether. Art  s th ow n  aw y.
