Re: Implementing a Macro Language

From: Jonathan Wood (jwood_at_softcircuits.com)
Date: 06/14/04 

Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 10:14:54 -0600

Kurt,

> I have done what you are thinking of doing, and it wasn't too
> difficult. It's better if you can design the program with the
> automation in mind.

Did you use COM automation, or some custom solution?

> 1. Are the commands going to be read from a text file, or will they be
> issued cross-process via another progam?

Well, if I implemented COM Automation, then I assume they'd be issued
cross-process via another program. But I was wondering about something
simpler. Macros would be loaded from and saved to disk but I didn't plan to
store them in text format.

> 2. Do you have to be able to macro absolutely everything in the user
> interface, or can you restrict the macroable to a subset of your
> program?

Probably a subset. I don't really see a reason to automate setting options,
for example. While search and replace options will definitely need to be
automated.

> 3. Do you intend this to be a one-time language design such that the
> macro language will never change? If you do intend to evolve the
> macro language then will you provide your customers with tools for
> porting their macros to the more modern version, or will you continue
> to support all previous versions, or will you simply cease to support
> macros intended for the previous version? (Simply: How much will this
> be changing?)

It may change a little over time, mostly to handle new features added to the
program.

> 4. Do any of the functions that you intend to provide a macro
> interface for require a long time to execute? For those that do, you
> need an effective way to gracefully wait for their completion.

They could. I'm not sure why this would be an issue unless you have COM
Automation in mind.

> I have often provided a method of automating a limited part of my
> programs through reading instructions from text files. One command
> per line, simple parsing, no expression evaluation... just a simple
> script. This is fairly easy.

Right. Although I was thinking of "compiling" the instructions when they are
saved in the program, thereby storing macro information that could be
processed faster.

> I have also gone as far as to hide a complicated program entirely and
> to run it invisibly via another program I created which had a simpler
> user-interface. This required automating certain sequences while
> others were merely passed through directly to the slaved program. The
> goal was to hide a bad user interface from operators who would have
> been hopelessly confused by it. In a case like that, I like to create
> an ActiveX control which encapsulates all of the functions which I
> intend to pass through whether a given function is complicated and
> requires many steps, or whether it might be a simple pass-through, it
> has properties and methods exposed in the ActiveX control.

Well, I wouldn't be doing anything like that.

> So, if you can give me some more particulars, I may be able to provide
> some more specific suggestions.

I"m not really sure what you have in mind but I'm open to all suggestions.

Thanks. 

-- 
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits
http://www.softcircuits.com
Available for consulting: http://www.softcircuits.com/jwood/resume.htm

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