StepTalk

Ahthor: Stefan Urbanek (Google the name for contact) License: LGPL (see file COPYING)

IMPORTANT: This is legacy project and it is no longer maintained by me - the author.

What is StepTalk ?

StepTalk is a scripting framework for creating scriptable servers or applications. StepTalk, when combined with the dynamism that the Objective-C language provides, goes way beyond mere scripting. It is written using GNUstep.

Where to get it?

StepTalk requires GNUstep http://www.gnustep.org

You can download StepTalk from

http://www.gnustep.org/experience/StepTalk.html

Documentation for users and developers:

http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Scripting

Installation

You need to have GNUstep which you can get from http://www.gnustep.org

To install StepTalk type:

> make
> make install

If you do not want to build AppKit extensions, then type

> make appkit=no
> make appkit=no install

If something goes wrong while build process and it is not while building in the Source directory, then try to do make and make install in that directory first. In any case of problem, do not hesitate to contact the author.

StepTalk Shell is included in Examples/Shell directory. It requires libncurses.

Tools

stexec - execute a StepTalk script in the GNUstep Foundation environment
stalk  - talk to named server
stupdate_languages - update the available languages info

stshell - StepTalk shell - interactive tool (in Examples/Shell)

Predefined objects for executing scripts by 'stexec'

    Args          - command line arguments
    Engine        - scripting engine
    Environment   - scripting environment

    Transcript    - simple transcript

Sripting environment description

Scripting environment description is used to translate the method names and/or allow or deny the methods for concrete classes. Denying methods can be used to create safe scripting environment as prevention against script viruses.

It contains: - list of methods, that are available for scripting for particular class - symbolic selector (operator) to selector mapping - list of modules to be loaded - list of object finders

Standard vs. full scripting

Before each message send, selector is translated using scipting description. When standard scripting is used and there is no such selector avilable for scripting for target object, then an exception is raised. With full scripting, any message should be sent to any target object.

Files

StepTalk is looking for its files in GNUSTEP_*_ROOT/Library/StepTalk

There should be these directories:

Configuration - Configuration files        
Environments  - Directory containig environment descriptions
Finders       - Object finders
Languages     - StepTalk language bundles
Modules       - StepTalk modules
Scripts       - Directory containig StepTalk scripts

Defaults

See Documentation/Defaults.txt

Feedback

Send comments, questions and suggestions to: discus-gnustep@gnu.org

Send bug reports to: bug-gnustep@gnu.org