Re: Do you consider Python a 4GL? Why (not)?

From	Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com>
Subject	Re: Do you consider Python a 4GL? Why (not)?
Date	2013-06-05 19:40 -0400
Organization	> Bestiaria Support Staff <
References	<BLU176-W1F35788C5EEAC4B30AB73D79E0@phx.gbl> <CAGGBd_rihU4iD2Cx75Ax0u-f6M+CUHQYcznzOTyYYR386hAQ-w@mail.gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Message-ID	<mailman.2772.1370475644.3114.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

Show all headers | View raw

On Tue, 4 Jun 2013 18:17:33 -0700, Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com>
declaimed the following in gmane.comp.python.general:


> Perhaps "Scripting language" is the best general category we have that
> Python fits into.  But I hope not.

	Heh... Having encountered ARexx (the Amiga version of REXX), Python
is NOT a scripting language... The ARexx implementation (along with the
Amiga's interprocess communication system) allowed for scripting any
application that opened an "ARexx Port"... Other than, maybe, the
original IBM REXX, I've not seen any other REXX implementation that
would permit embedding application specific commands into a script.

	Python's subprocess (and related) are all based on explicit startup
and communication over stdin/stdout... Nothing like:

address TextEditor	/* a fictitious application port */
'DN 5'	/* move down five lines *?:
'MARK'		/* start a selection	*/
'RW 5'	/* move right five words */
'COPY'	/* copy selection to operation result */
string = result
address PageSetter	/* fictitious here, but a real program */
'PASTE' string	/* insert selected string into page document /*

	Yes, maybe the above could be done as two sessions of subprocess --
presuming both programs had a command line interface. But what if the
script was going to switch between the two of them throughout one
session.

	The C compiler suites used this ability to read the error log from a
compile, and move to the line/column in the source file associated with
each error. (Before "integrated" development environments)

-- 
	Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
        wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/

Back to comp.lang.python | Previous | Next — Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Re: Do you consider Python a 4GL? Why (not)? Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-06-05 19:40 -0400
  Re: Do you consider Python a 4GL? Why (not)? Laurent Pointal <laurent.pointal@free.fr> - 2013-06-11 21:48 +0200
    Re: Do you consider Python a 4GL? Why (not)? Dave Angel <davea@davea.name> - 2013-06-11 22:02 -0400
    Re: Do you consider Python a 4GL? Why (not)? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-06-12 12:10 +1000

csiph-web