Scripting News -- March 1998
Monday, March 30, 1998
Thea's Galleria goes to Albania, a repressive country where the Internet (and Macs and Frontier) make a real difference in getting news to people whose lives depend on it.PC WEEK: Novell to develop cross-operating system API.
Lisa Rein wrote me a beautiful geeky song this morning!
Chris Nolan in the SJ Merc considers the acquisition of Netscape by IBM and/or AOL.
ComputerShopper contrasts DRP and WEBDAV. Microsoft is pushing DAV, Marimba says DRP is different (it's for code, not web content). Pointers.
Wes has comments on the Computer Shopper piece.
According to Wired, Netscape 5.0 will have extensive XML capabilities.
Written in 1991: Demoing Software for Fun and Profit.
Sunday, March 29, 1998
Some time in April 1988 work started on Frontier 1.0. Frontier is almost ten years old.Josh Lucas tells a great story of how he got Java and Frontier to talk to each other via XML.
A January email exchange with Sun's Bill Joy on exactly this issue. I have to eat my words! We're going to have 100 percent pure Java-native connection.
For Java developers, this is what we're working towards, having Java code be a full participant in the new server-side architecture that builds around Frontier's integrated object database.
WebReview: Servlet reference guide.
Update: We're going to further delay the release of the WebDAV client/server for Frontier 5 because we want to test it to be sure it's conforming to the IETF spec. We've received a test client to work with. It's important to be sure we're releasing a compatible server, not one that's (just) compatible with our client.
Arnold Lesikar: Tag Extraction Kit for Frontier 5.
A report on last Wednesday's BANG meeting.
Saturday, March 28, 1998
Another object database vendor agrees that relational databases can't store the full range of XML content.InfoWorld: XML as middle-ware to bridge COM and CORBA.
A little bird whispered in my ear that Adobe is working on an interesting workflow product.
Lisa Rein reports that the W3C is getting spec-happy.
Cameron Barret would like to start an Ann Arbor/Detroit Frontier User's Group.
PC WEEK reviews Wallop Build-it.
Friday, March 27, 1998
UC Irvine: Endeavors is an open, distributed, extensible process execution environment.Greg Pierce, turtle@dallas.net, asks "Are any Frontier users in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas area interested in starting some sort of informal gatherings to exchange ideas?"
Wired covers the XML conference in Seattle.
Symantec VisualPage users, please check out the HTML tools survey.
More changes to system.verbs.builtins.xml.
Here's a source listing of xml.compile and xml.decompile.
USA Today: The Lotus/IBM merger, three years later.
Thursday, March 26, 1998
ContentServer/B for Frontier 5 and its mail list. One down, one to go.ContentServer tip. If you have trouble installing it, open the Quick Script window, type people.init () and click on the Run button, then run the Installer again.
I redesigned the HTML tools survey according to feedback and reset the counters to zero. Let's try again!
Change in plan. We'll release the WebDAV client/server on Saturday.
Forbes thinks that the perfect web content management system doesn't exist.
Our 5.0.2 server strategy.
John Tigue's WebBroker slide show.
www.xml.com goes live.
Brent Simmons turns 30 today!
SJ Merc: Microsoft kisses the C: prompt goodbye, forever.
Correction: Microsoft's OSA is ActiveX Scripting.
Wednesday, March 25, 1998
Survey: We'd like to find out what HTML tools you use.Forbes: NetObjects clashes with Goliath.
DaveNet: DataChannel's ORB.
Finetuning.com is reporting on DataChannel's XML-based ORB, slated to be introduced tomorrow. Lisa is sneaky!
She says: "DataChannel's ChannelService will be the world's first application running over the WebBroker." Hmmm. How does she know? We're pretty fast here.
On April 1, Netscape will free the lizard. It's funny!
More changes to system.verbs.builtins.xml.
Heard on NPR: Today is Aretha Franklin's 56th birthday.
Aretha played a big role in my life, starting in 1995.
I also suggested that Apple buy one of Aretha's songs in early 1996.
Wired covers the Green Paper controversy.
The NY Times covers the www.pokey.org controversy.
Marc Canter: A New Paradigm for Tools.
Tuesday, March 24, 1998
What a day! Tallent shipped a cross-platform ODBC connector for Frontier 5, and a group led by Andre Radke shipped Regex. Thank you!Saturday: Southern California Frontier User's Group.
Microsoft: Visual Interdev 6.0 pre-release.
I'm adding features to builtins.xml this morning in response to requests on the Frontier-XML mail list.
CNN: Suspicious notebook survives detonation.
Monday, March 23, 1998
DaveNet: Perl and XML.A screen shot of Betty's responders table.
The people suite is released. It's a foundation for Frontier's WebDAV support and for ContentServer.
PC WEEK: MSIE 5.0, due in April or May, will build on XML.
ActiveState: Perl-XML mail list.
Homer Simpson eating a plate of donuts, and drooling in the presence of a donut.
Yesterday's release of the core XML facilities is the realization of ideas expressed in Sandboxes (4/9/97) and XML Databases (2/22/98).
Frontier 3.0, released in 1993, added support for both sides of the Open Scripting Architecture, client and server.
Inside Macintosh: Interapplication Communication, documents Apple's Open Scripting Archictecture.
Microsoft's OSA is called Windows Scripting Host.
Sunday, March 22, 1998
The first public release of UserLand's core XML facilities, including a compiler and decompiler, a set of access routines that walk the structure, and a tutorial with screen shots. The goal is to teach the most expert Frontier developers, over the next few weeks, how to write XML-based applications running in Frontier's object database.A real-world example of a script that gets an XML file over the Internet and brings it into the Frontier object database.
Another script that produces a report based on that information.
Betty has been revised to use system.verbs.builtins.xml.
Matt Neuburg responds to my AppleScript piece.
Who owns xml.com?
A MORE II ad that ran in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In 1988? Thanks to Christoph Jaggi.
BusinessWeek: One foot on the platform and the other on the train.
Charles Foot, cfoot@jps.net, of Mendocino, says hello.
Saturday, March 21, 1998
James Gosling's Java slide show.Jim Cunningham's WebDAV slide show.
BrainForest is an outliner for the Palm Pilot.
Principia: An object db that connects to the web.
Andrew's DreamWeaver Depot is a place to share objects, behaviors, and other files related to DreamWeaver.
MacWEEK editorial on AppleScript.
My editorial on AppleScript.
Here's a fun ad we ran for MORE in 1987.
Friday, March 20, 1998
A bunch of new stuff will roll thru scripting.com in the next few weeks. Frontier developers, please check this out.Maxum has started a Serve Different website, promoting the use of Macs as web servers. Lately the hype from Apple has been that Macs don't make good servers. Weird!
FYI, the page you're reading right now is served on an ancient Quadra 800, running WebSTAR. It seems to handle the load pretty well.
Alex Hopmann's WebDAV slide show.
Barclay's is looking for an Frontier/Quark expert.
Brent is ready for another test of ContentServer. All you have to do is send email. Details are on this page. Thanks!
Doug Baron has a query about TCP programming. If you're a TCP guru, on either Mac or Windows, your advice is sought.
SJ Merc: HP does its own Java.
News.com says that HP thought Sun was asking for too much money.
PC WEEK says that Microsoft will license HP's Java for Windows CE and perhaps WebTV.
Cupertino Kool Aid -- It's funny!
Thursday, March 19, 1998
MacWEEK: FileMaker opens up. It would be great to get more info on what kind of opportunities this presents for Frontier developers. FileMaker is strategic.A Frontier XML compiler from Technology Solutions takes raw XML and turns it into an object database structure that's stored efficiently and is easy for scripts to access.
Upside profiles Heidi Roizen.
CNN: The Simpsons to get new voices? Doh!
BeOS/Intel ships. Congratulations to our friends at Be!
NY Times: Forget Big Brother. A great rambling narrative by Peter H. Lewis, a personal story of lost privacy thanks to video cameras and computers.
XPublish is a Macintosh XML website publishing system.
OASIS is an industry consortium dedicated to encouraging the adoption of SGML as a standard for document and data interchange, especially in commercial industries.
The Albanian Daily News is a Frontier site.
Wednesday, March 18, 1998
Sample script: Babysitting a Server.MacWEEK reviews HomePage 3. Great integration with FileMaker. Limited site management. It would be great if they hooked it up to WebDAV so it could easily hook into Frontier's upcoming site management interfaces.
Feed: XML and the Balkanization of the Web.
PC WEEK interview with Netscape's Marc Andreessen.
Tuesday, March 17, 1998
DaveNet: The Dog Ate My Homework.We've had a couple of reports of unusual performance on www.scripting.com today. How is it performing for you?
MacWEEK: Quark goes with Oracle and CORBA for content management.
Raines Cohen filed a report on the Jobs keynote at Seybold this morning.
InfoWorld: CORBA chief stresses language neutrality.
The Morning Call: Pokey toymaker takes on young Internet user in challenge over trademark.
Vervet Logic: XML Pro.
Wired: Perl opens its arms to XML. Right on!
Monday, March 16, 1998
Here's something reallly neat... The Trelligram Utility.Marc Canter: Making Money with Scalable Content.
It's Monday... How do I know? Thea Galleria! (This week's site is a perfect illustration of Pete Dyson's premise, linked to yesterday.)
News.com: IONA bridges COM and CORBA.
News.com: JavaOne preview. The new story is programmer efficiency. If you use one language on for all layers of an application, you can staff the project more efficiently.
Following up on last week's COM design discussion, Bierman posts his design for Frontier's COM server interface.
The Brain promises to digitize your mind.
Microsoft Site Builder Network is still pointing to Frontier. Thanks!
InfoWorld has started a discussion forum on XML. Requires registration.
I was able to post a message on InfoWorld's system, introducing UserLand and pointing to our XML plan.
SJ Merc: Palm Pilot braces for Microsoft competition.
We'll have a chunk of downtime this week. I'll be in NY, but development will continue, and we'll have lots of good stuffff to roll out next week.
Sunday, March 15, 1998
Pete Dyson, in a Seybold editorial from last summer: He's singing our song. "What's different about the Web is the law of accumulation. It says that, after a while, every serious publisher will have large-scale content management problems."Help us test the new Frontier 5-compatible version of ContentServer. Please don't put macros in the title of articles. We'll fix the hole. Got the message.
Here's the log of messages that ContentServer turned into web pages.
Thanks for the help on Frontier's server-side COM architecture. The response was just incredible!
We have some very deeply skilled COM implementors flowing thru this site. We're now working on an iDispatch server in Frontier. It'll connect to everything people want to connect to. I think we got it right. *Thank you*. Now, the next project...
We want to demonstrate a powerful connection with MacroMedia products and technologies.
Saturday, March 14, 1998
DaveNet: O'Reilly, Microsoft and Seybold.Upside: Cold Fusion is hot. It's interesting that my old friend Mitch Kapor is on Allaire's board. Welcome back Mitch, seriously!
Builder.com: Hack the DOMs!
Infoworld: IBM's Nagano to manage complex web sites.
MacWEEK charts a new cross-platform course.
Friday, March 13, 1998
No doubt about it. Today has been a great hair day here.Today, Frontier is the top item on Microsoft's Site Builder Network home page. Thank you Microsoft! And yes, we are seriously cooool, and we totally love you!
PS: 700,000 Windows web developers are SBN members.
A new Frontier 5 screen shot.
HotWired: Bill Gates Reconsidered.
COM gurus, we're Reaching for COM Nirvana and could use some advice. Postscript: Bob says the response has been overwhelming, we're getting exactly the right kind of advice. Thanks!
More Mail Starting 3/12/98.
O'Reilly's Frontier press release.
Builder.com covers XML, but misses that Frontier is becoming the market-leading XML server.
Microsoft: Creating XML from relational databases.
InfoWorld: Pointcast CEO outlines business strategy.
Thursday, March 12, 1998
What do you think of Macromedia's Fireworks?Survey: If you are a system developer, which protocols to you use to connect networked systems?
O'Reilly's Frontier book is out. Some comments.
A reader points out that O'Reilly has a great description of Frontier on their site.
Our animal is a bison.
A brief update to our plan for XML-HTTP interfaces.
ZDNet: Sun's Zander InternetWorld keynote. Java's server-side story. The server is deep, the client is thin.
Amid all the new Java releases, can anyone spot a way for us to allow people to write Frontier server-side plug-ins in Java? We'd pass in a table of parameters and receive back a modified table.
Java developers: What do you think of SuperCede?
NY Times: Where do computers go when they die? Add to the list... Old computers make great servers!
Wednesday, March 11, 1998
Apple and Microsoft to join Javas.If you'll be in NY next Wednesday evening and want to see how Frontier 5/Win works, I'll be demoing at Javits Center, 7:30PM, look for signs for DaveNet. It's free and open to the public. Bring your questions!
Tuesday, March 10, 1998
DaveNet: Bonk!The best of the west, in the east!
The Perl guys are doing XML too. Welcome!
Check out the new ClassAds site, now running on Betty.
An XML standard for prayers and scriptures?
Michael Richardson, MD, used my slide show website for a presentation he gave last month.
To many Frontier webmasters, the XML and Betty stuff must be confusing. We're digging new holes. Will they be relevant in your world?
Yes. Here's why. Frontier has become a web server. This means that web browsers, for the first time, can reliably talk directly to Frontier. Now we can build UIs for Frontier data in HTML. Improving our DHTML repertoire becomes the next focus. Everyone will see new magic happening on their machines, in a matter of weeks.
Like other frameworks in Frontier, Betty defines a table structure that is passed down an assembly line of scripts that look at it and do things to it.
I wish someone would do something like the ClickWorld website for Frontier.
WebMethods: Web Automation Toolkit. Can a Betty responder be built to connect to WebMethods' protocol?
We want to find Tom Garland, formerly of Silicon Graphics. He left SGI to go to M-Path Interactive. Send email to dgfink@aol.com. Thanks!
Macrobyte: SiteLiner 1.0b7.
Fortune: AOL Won.
SJ Merc: Packard family gives $175 million to create new public spaces.
Monday, March 09, 1998
Will you be in NY next week for Seybold? I will... I'm doing an evening DaveNet Live session (free admission) and am part of the keynote panel on XML; both next Wednesday, 3/18.Deep in the heart of Betty beats the rhythm of XML. There's a client and a server and about 17000 different things you can do.
Here's an email from Brian Slesinsky.
Speaking of bugs in Betty, we just got one fixed. You should now get the whole picture of Jobs and Woz, not just the top half.
It's interesting reading Byte's current cover story on XML. Unless I missed something, here's nothing about support for XML on servers.
Every Monday another great site on Thea's Galleria.
We were very busy over the weekend!
Survey: Do you use the Windows or Mac version of Frontier, or both?
An open letter to people subscribed to UserLand-hosted mail lists about abusive email.
Is Scripting News is reading like Microserfs? Totally. 5.0!
Sunday, March 08, 1998
Rube Goldberg would love this. Here's a dynamic page that calls our main server over HTTP to get the XML source of today's Scripting News.It wouldn't be possible without Brian Andresen's suites.xml and Matt Daw's getNews macro. Great teamwork!
CowPoke 1.0, a system-level keyboard interface for Frontier/Mac.
Betty: An update to the ODB responder makes the icons show up when browsing the file system. Still diggin!
The fix is in Update #4 on the Betty download page.
The Scottish Frontier Users Group is operating a mail list and meeting on March 11 in Edinburgh.
What a busy weekend this is turning into!
Saturday, March 07, 1998
Betty is the new server-side architecture for Frontier 5.A demo of web-based admin in Betty.
A demo of dynamic rendering in Betty.
More demos on the testing server.
We released the software too.
Quail is like HyperMail for Frontier.
Friday, March 06, 1998
DaveNet: What is The Enterprise?My old buddy Chuck Shotton is movin on! I bet he needs some XML interfaces...
Pcwebopedia: What is CORBA?
5/28/96: What is RPC? To people who think I just got this, check out the date on the piece. It was written almost two years ago. And the ideas are over twenty years old.
Heard on the net: "XML gives Java something to do."
You heard it here: Frontier does it better.
SJ Merc: The Java wars continue.
46 things that never happen in Star Trek.
Our Y2K statement for Frontier 5.
Mozilla.org: License agreement for Netscape. (Draft)
Thursday, March 05, 1998
DaveNet: XML is also a Commercial.Brian Travis of Information Architects responds to today's DaveNet piece.
Upside claims to have the real unedited Bill Gates diary.
BusinessWeek: Privacy and security still haunt the Net.
Newton developers are planning a gathering at Apple tomorrow to find out why it was cancelled.
Wednesday, March 04, 1998
It's hot here today!DaveNet: I promote my XML-RPC plan.
Reuters: WebMethods promotes theirs. This is the kind of heat that makes standards happen quickly. We will work with WebMethods to be sure our software is compatible.
Techweb: DataChannel and others are working on a proposal for XML-based publish and subscribe.
And part of our development community spins out. This is good. There is a lot of value in their independence.
Stay tuned!
Slate: Bill Gates's road trip, day 2.
Southern California Frontier User's Group meets on 3/28.
InfoWorld: Fast net access in hotel rooms.
Salon: Evidence that people believe that OSes other than Windows are viable.
News.com: Microsoft invests $6 million in General Magic.
SJ Merc: Senators rake Gates over the coals.
PC WEEK has pictures of the hearing.
25 XML scripts registered yesterday on Betty's guestbook.
Tuesday, March 03, 1998
If you're interested in XML and you can send a raw HTTP request from your programming environment, please try this experiment.Everchanging built a client to connect to our guestbook experiment.
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Frontier-auf-Deutsch!
More Mail Starting 3/2/98.
Deke Smith, deke@tallent.com, asks if there's a DTD for SQL. He wants to know how to talk to an SQL engine thru XML.
The DAV Searching and Locating group has a pretty self-explanatory name.
C-SPAN will webcast today's Senate Judiciary hearing. Testimony from Bill Gates, Scott McNealy, Jim Barksdale, Michael Dell and Stewart Alsop.
Monday, March 02, 1998
UserLand's XML plan has been revised, focusing on RPC over HTTP via XML as our vendor-independent, cross-platform, interapplication communication protocol.Frontier 5.0.1 for Mac and Windows. Fixes & tweaks.
Thea's Galleria has a hot site today. Don't miss it!
A new sample site for Frontier 5 newbies.
Steve Wozniak, John Perry Barlow on Mail Starting 3/2/98.
Slate: Bill Gates's Diary.
News.com: Borland goes CORBA. Will they hook it up to XML?
Jeff Veen on WebMonkey: Netscape bares all!
Upside: Nine minutes with God.
News.com: UMAX and Steve Jobs.
NY Times: The Story of Spyglass.
Washington Post: Teens with tech talent rise to top.
NY Times: Now Hiring! If you're young.
Sunday, March 01, 1998
Brent Simmons et al: User's Guide for Frontier 5.DaveNet: Clinton and Silicon Valley.
Reuters: Clinton showing new flexibility on encryption.
News.com: Network Associates reverses on key recovery?
SJ Merc: Dan Gillmor blows the whistle on Valley politicos.
CowPoke. This is a beautiful piece of work!
Back issues...
Check out Scripting News -- February 1998.
|
This page was last built on 3/31/98; 12:03:57 AM by David Winer. dave@scripting.com |