DDJ, January 2000 -- Scripting and Alternative Languages


FEATURES

SCRIPTING FOR PNUTS

by John H. McCoy

Pnuts is a language, API, and interpreter that provides a thin procedural wrapper with an interactive interface for manipulating Java objects.

REBOL AND E-MAIL SERVICES

by Michael Swaine

When rebuilding his web sites, Michael looked at a number of scripting languages -- and settled on Rebol. He found it easier to use than many other scripting tools, and the kinds of tasks it makes easy are those involving Internet programming.

A DYNAMIC SELECT COMPONENT FOR JAVASCRIPT

by Steve Johnson

Designing a GUI component in Javascript is different than developing a custom widget in more traditional object-oriented environments. Steve shows you how to do it.

PYTHON SERVER PAGES: PART 1

by Kirby W. Angell

Python Server Pages (PSP) is a server-side scripting engine designed along the lines of Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) and Sun's Java Server Pages (JSP).

TOOLS FOR FLEXIBLE SCRIPTING

by Sergei Savchenko

Building scripting languages can be a time-consuming tasks. Sergei presents a pair of tools to simplify development.

EC: A EURO CALCULATOR FOR THE PALM PLATFORM

by Michael Yam

EC, the Euro calculator Michael presents here, involves a number of advanced Palm programming topics, including database and memory management, and the synchronization of data between the device and the desktop.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

ECOS: AN OPERATING SYSTEM FOR EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

by Gary Thomas

The Embedded Configurable Operating System (eCos) is a royalty-free, open-source, real-time kernel, targeted at high-performance small embedded systems. As such, eCos has been specifically designed and tuned to run on 32- and 64-bit microprocessors.

INTERNET PROGRAMMING

THE ULTIMATE HOME JUKEBOX

by Charlie Munro and Mark Nelson

Our authors describe how they used MP3 to encode and store on hard disk nearly 300 audio CDs, then networked the music server to create the ultimate home jukebox.

PROGRAMMER'S TOOLCHEST

EXAMINING PERLCOM

by Mike McMillan

PerlCOM, from O'Reilly & Associates, lets you use Perl in any language or application that supports Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) objects. Mike shows you how to use it to extend Visual Basic.

COLUMNS

PROGRAMMING PARADIGMS

by Michael Swaine

It's more than a change in the weather that has Michael scratching his head this month.

C PROGRAMMING

by Al Stevens

Al continues his development of the graphics template library. This month, he adds an ellipse shape to the library implemented as a template class in ellipse.h.

JAVA Q&A

by Michael Travers

What is interactive scripting and what does it have to do with Java? Michael answers this question, as he presents Skij, an interactive scripting language for the Java environment.

ALGORITHM ALLEY

by Timothy Rolfe

Card shuffling is an example of putting a fixed number of items into completely random order. Timothy examines a couple of randomizing algorithms -- one that does not generate all permutations with equal probability, and another that does.

DR. ECCO'S OMNIHEURIST CORNER

by Dennis E. Shasha

Ecco and Liane do lunch and go Hollywood, as they look for ways to keep a low-budget just that.

PROGRAMMER'S BOOKSHELF

by Jack J. Woehr and Lou Grinzo

Databases are the focus this month, as Jack examines the latest edition of C.J. Date's classic An Introduction to Database Systems, while Lou looks at MySQL & mSQL, by Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese, and Tim King.

FORUM

EDITORIAL

by Jonathan Erickson

LETTERS

by you

NEWS & VIEWS

edited by Nicholas Baran

OF INTEREST

by Nicholas Baran and Amy Lincicum

SWAINE'S FLAMES

by Michael Swaine