Misplaced Pages

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73-498: AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. First introduced in System 7 , it is currently included in all versions of macOS as part of a package of system automation tools. The term "AppleScript" may refer to the language itself, to an individual script written in the language, or, informally, to the macOS Open Scripting Architecture that underlies

146-446: A Perl 4 binary with Oracle Call Interface compiled in. This has however since been replaced by a library (Perl Module), DBD::Oracle . Other complex and task-oriented applications may incorporate and expose an embedded programming language to allow their users more control and give them more functionality than can be available through a user interface, no matter how sophisticated. For example, Autodesk Maya 3D authoring tools embed

219-750: A Windows Script Host engine (VBScript, JScript and VBA by default in Windows and third-party engines including implementations of Rexx, Perl, Tcl, Python, XSLT, Ruby, Modern Pascal, Delphi , and C). A majority of applications can access and use operating system components via the object models or its own functions. Other devices like programmable calculators may also have glue languages; the operating systems of PDAs such as Windows CE may have available native or third-party macro tools that glue applications together, in addition to implementations of common glue languages—including Windows NT , DOS , and some Unix shells , Rexx, Modern Pascal, PHP, and Perl. Depending upon

292-418: A "common" language, the user gets the advantage of being able to transfer skills from application to application. A more generic alternative is simply to provide a library (often a C library) that a general-purpose language can use to control the application, without modifying the language for the specific domain. JavaScript began as and primarily still is a language for scripting inside web browsers ; however,

365-597: A bundle, a library can include an AppleScript dictionary (sdef) file, thus functioning like a scripting addition but written in AppleScript or AppleScriptObjC. A framework for attaching Cocoa interfaces to AppleScript applications, part of the Xcode package in Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, now deprecated in favor of AppleScriptObjC. A Cocoa development software framework , also called AppleScript/Objective-C or ASOC, part of

438-463: A computer program, the shell. Calvin Mooers in his TRAC language is generally credited with inventing command substitution , the ability to embed commands in scripts that, when interpreted, insert a character string into the script. Multics calls these active functions . Louis Pouzin wrote an early processor for command scripts called RUNCOM for CTSS around 1964. Stuart Madnick at MIT wrote

511-473: A digital version in addition to the print edition. On September 10, 2014, IDG announced it was discontinuing the print edition and laid off most of the staff, while continuing the digital version. At one time, the magazine's publisher licensed its name to another IDG subsidiary, IDG World Expo , for the Macworld Conference & Expo (later Macworld/iWorld ), which took place every January at

584-406: A file, to print something, to quit, to set data to variables—as well as a basic application object that gives the scriptable properties of the application itself. Many applications have numerous suites capable of performing any task the application itself can perform. In exceptional cases, applications may support plugins which include their own scripting dictionaries. AppleScript was designed with

657-401: A general-purpose language. A scripting language may lack the functionality to write complex applications. Typically, a script starts executing at the first line of code whereas an application typically starts at a special point in the code called the entry point . For example, Java is not script-like since an application starts at the function named main which need not be at the top of

730-399: A high level of abstraction, or as a control language , particularly for job control languages on mainframes. The term scripting language is sometimes used in a wider sense, to refer to dynamic high-level programming languages in general. Some are strictly interpreted languages , while others use a form of compilation. In this context, the term script refers to a small program in such

803-480: A language for writing extensions to the browser itself, and several standard embedded languages for controlling the browser, including JavaScript (a dialect of ECMAScript ) or XUL . Scripting languages can be categorized into several different types, with a considerable degree of overlap among the types. Scripting is often contrasted with system programming , as in Ousterhout's dichotomy or " programming in

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876-470: A language; typically, contained in a single file, and no larger than a few thousand lines of code. The scope of scripting languages ranges from small to large, and from highly domain-specific language to general-purpose programming languages . A language may start as small and highly domain-specific and later develop into a portable and general-purpose language; conversely, a general-purpose language may later develop special domain-specific dialects. Script

949-483: A macro language built into the editor, e.g., The SemWare Editor (TSE), vi improved (VIM), or using an external implementation, e.g., XEDIT , or both, e.g., KEDIT . Sometimes text editors and edit macros are used under the covers to provide other applications, e.g., FILELIST and RDRLIST in CMS . A major class of scripting languages has grown out of the automation of job control , which relates to starting and controlling

1022-475: A message, AppleScript uses a "tell" construct: Alternatively, the tell may be expressed in one line by using an infinitive : For events in the "Core Suite" (activate, open, reopen, close, print, and quit), the application may be supplied as the direct object to transitive commands: The concept of an object hierarchy can be expressed using nested blocks: The concept of an object hierarchy can also be expressed using either nested prepositional phrases or

1095-538: A number of built-in classes. These basic data classes are directly supported by the language and tend to be universally recognized by scriptable applications. The most common ones are as follows: Many AppleScript processes are managed by blocks of code, where a block begins with a command command and ends with an end command statement. The most important structures are described below. AppleScript offers two kinds of conditionals. The repeat loop of AppleScript comes in several slightly different flavors. They all execute

1168-615: A number of formats (compiled script files, application packages, script bundles, and plain text files), and usually provide features such as syntax highlighting and prewritten code snippets. AppleScripts can be run from a script editor, but it is usually more convenient to run scripts directly, without opening a script editor application. There are a number of options for doing so: Re-usable AppleScript modules (available since OS X Mavericks ), written in AppleScript or AppleScriptObjC and saved as script files or bundles in certain locations, that can be called from other scripts. When saved as

1241-404: A page, a document or a range of pages. Generally, AEOM defines a number of objects—like "document" or "paragraph"—and corresponding actions—like "cut" and "close". The system also defines ways to refer to properties of objects, so one can refer to the "third paragraph of the document 'Good Day'", or the "color of the last word of the front window". AEOM uses an application dictionary to associate

1314-475: A scripting language for IBM's CP/CMS in 1966. He originally called this processor COMMAND, later named EXEC . Multics included an offshoot of CTSS RUNCOM, also called RUNCOM. EXEC was eventually replaced by EXEC 2 and REXX . Languages such as Tcl and Lua were specifically designed as general-purpose scripting languages that could be embedded in any application. Other languages such as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) provided strong integration with

1387-539: A scripting language, notably the Google Chrome T-rex game. Early mainframe computers (in the 1950s) were non-interactive, instead using batch processing . IBM's Job Control Language (JCL) is the archetype of languages used to control batch processing. The first interactive shells were developed in the 1960s to enable remote operation of the first time-sharing systems, and these used shell scripts , which controlled running computer programs within

1460-414: A series of possessives: which in another programming language might be expressed as sequential method calls , like in this pseudocode : AppleScript includes syntax for ordinal counting, "the first paragraph", as well as cardinal, "paragraph one". Likewise, the numbers themselves can be referred to as text or numerically, "five", "fifth" and "5" are all supported; they are synonyms in AppleScript. Also,

1533-447: A single application. A number of languages have been designed for the purpose of replacing application-specific scripting languages by being embeddable in application programs. The application programmer (working in C or another systems language) includes "hooks" where the scripting language can control the application. These languages may be technically equivalent to an application-specific extension language but when an application embeds

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1606-402: A specific general-purpose language (e.g. QuakeC , modeled after C), they have custom features that distinguish them. Emacs Lisp , while a fully formed and capable dialect of Lisp , contains many special features that make it most useful for extending the editing functions of Emacs. An application-specific scripting language can be viewed as a domain-specific programming language specialized to

1679-567: A subsidiary of IDG . Macworld was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fluegelman (editor). It began as a print magazine in 1984, with its first issue distributed at the launch of the Macintosh computer. As a print magazine, it had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macintosh-focused magazines in North America, more than double its nearest competitor, MacLife . In 1997,

1752-581: A substantial amount of logic is written in script, it is better characterized as simply another software component, not "glue". Glue languages are especially useful for writing and maintaining: Glue language examples: Macro languages exposed to operating system or application components can serve as glue languages. These include Visual Basic for Applications , WordBasic , LotusScript , CorelScript , Hummingbird Basic, QuickScript, Rexx, SaxBasic , and WinWrap Basic. Other tools like AWK can also be considered glue languages, as can any language implemented by

1825-441: A touch-activated screen. These languages could in principle be used to control any GUI application; but, in practice their use is limited because their use needs support from the application and from the operating system . There are a few exceptions to this limitation. Some GUI scripting languages are based on recognizing graphical objects from their display screen pixels . These GUI scripting languages do not depend on support from

1898-443: Is a subjective characterization that generally includes the following attributes. A script is usually not compiled – at least not its usual meaning. Generally, they are interpreted directly from source code or from bytecode or run as native after just-in-time compilation . A script is generally relatively short and simple. As there is no limit on size or complexity, script is subjective. A few lines of code without branching

1971-539: Is a weekly podcast published by Macworld . The Macworld Podcast began life on April 26, 2005 as the "Geek Factor Podcast," hosted by Cyrus Farivar, but was upgraded into the official "Macworld Podcast" with its fifth installment in August 2005. It was hosted at various times by Chris Breen, Philip Michaels, Serenity Caldwell, Glenn Fleishman, and Susie Ochs. Following a hiatus in 2017, today the Macworld Podcast

2044-492: Is extensible, allowing the use of scripting additions that add new functions to the language. Mainly, however, AppleScript relies on the functionality of applications and processes to handle complex tasks. As a structured command language, AppleScript can be compared to Unix shells , the Microsoft Windows Script Host , or IBM REXX but it is distinct from all three. Essential to its functionality

2117-443: Is more pervasive and some languages include modern features that allow them to be used for application development as well as scripting. A scripting language can be a general purpose language or a domain-specific language for a particular environment. When embedded in an application, it may be called an extension language . A scripting language is sometimes referred to as very high-level programming language if it operates at

2190-415: Is probably considered a script. A codebase of multiple files, that performs sophisticated user or hardware interface or complicated algorithms or multiprogramming is probably not considered a script. A script usually automates a task that would otherwise be performed by a person in a more manual way. A language that is primarily intended for scripting generally has limited capabilities compared to

2263-472: Is the fact that Macintosh applications publish "dictionaries" of addressable objects and operations. AppleScript has some elements of procedural programming , object-oriented programming (particularly in the construction of script objects), and natural language programming tendencies in its syntax, but does not strictly conform to any of these programming paradigms . In the late 1980s, Apple considered using HyperCard 's HyperTalk scripting language as

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2336-476: The Maya Embedded Language , or Blender which uses Python to fill this role. Some other types of applications that need faster feature addition or tweak-and-run cycles (e.g. game engines ) also use an embedded language. During the development, this allows them to prototype features faster and tweak more freely, without the need for the user to have intimate knowledge of the inner workings of

2409-552: The Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Macworld published an annual Game Hall of Fame feature from 1986 until 2009. The Game Hall of Fame recognized the best Macintosh games of the year in various categories. The Hall of Fame was founded in 1986 by Steven Levy , who wrote or co-wrote the feature until 1998. Peter Cohen wrote the feature from 2001 until its conclusion in 2009. From 1998,

2482-526: The Ziff-Davis -owned MacUser magazine was consolidated into Macworld within the new Mac Publishing joint venture between IDG and Ziff-Davis. In 1999, the combined company also purchased the online publication MacCentral Online , because Macworld did not have a powerful online news component at the time. In late 2001 IDG bought out Ziff-Davis' share of Mac Publishing, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDG. In 2003, Macworld began publishing as

2555-433: The shebang line #!/usr/bin/osascript Example: For comments that take up multiple lines, AppleScript uses parentheses with asterisks inside. Example: In AppleScript, the traditional "Hello, World!" program could be written in many different forms, including: AppleScript has several user interface options, including dialogs, alerts, and list of choices. (The character ¬, produced by typing ⌥ Option + return in

2628-518: The Apple events with human-readable terms, allowing the translation back and forth between human-readable AppleScript and bytecode Apple events. To discover what elements of a program are scriptable, dictionaries for supported applications may be viewed. (In the Xcode and Script Editor applications, this is under File → Open Dictionary .) To designate which application is meant to be the target of such

2701-504: The AppleScript language is designed on the natural language metaphor , just as the graphical user interface is designed on the desktop metaphor . A well-written AppleScript should be clear enough to be read and understood by anyone, and easily edited. The language is based largely on HyperCard's HyperTalk language, extended to refer not only to the HyperCard world of cards and stacks, but also theoretically to any document. To this end,

2774-540: The AppleScript project was born as a spin-off of a research effort to modernize the Macintosh as a whole and finally became part of System 7 . AppleScript was released in October 1993 as part of System 7.1.1 (System 7 Pro, the first major upgrade to System 7). QuarkXPress (ver. 3.2) was one of the first major software applications that supported AppleScript. This, in turn, led to AppleScript being widely adopted within

2847-537: The AppleScript team introduced the AppleEvent Object Model (AEOM), which specifies the objects any particular application "knows". The heart of the AppleScript language is the use of terms that act as nouns and verbs that can be combined. For example, rather than a different verb to print a page, document or range of pages (such as printPage, printDocument, printRange), AppleScript uses a single "print" verb which can be combined with an object, such as

2920-526: The Game Hall of Fame began regularly inducting gaming accessories and hardware, and for its final two installments in 2008 and 2009, it further expanded its scope to include the best iPhone games. The magazine was published in many countries, either by other IDG subsidiaries or by outside publishers who have licensed the brand name and its content. These editions included Australia, Germany (1990–2015 Macwelt ), Italy, Spain, Sweden ( MacWorld ), Turkey,

2993-406: The Macintosh operating system uses to send information to applications, roughly analogous to sending XPath queries over XML-RPC in the world of web services . Apple events allow a script to work with multiple applications simultaneously, passing data between them so that complex tasks can be accomplished without human interaction. For example, an AppleScript to create a simple web gallery might do

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3066-1082: The OS version, WSH and the default script engines (VBScript and JScript) are available. Programmable calculators can be programmed in glue languages in three ways. For example, the Texas Instruments TI-92 , by factory default can be programmed with a command script language. Inclusion of the scripting and glue language Lua in the TI-NSpire series of calculators could be seen as a successor to this. The primary on-board high-level programming languages of most graphing calculators (most often Basic variants, sometimes Lisp derivatives, and more uncommonly, C derivatives) in many cases can glue together calculator functions—such as graphs, lists, matrices, etc. Third-party implementations of more comprehensive Basic version that may be closer to variants listed as glue languages in this article are available—and attempts to implement Perl, Rexx, or various operating system shells on

3139-556: The Script Editor window. The resulting script can be saved and re-run to duplicate the original actions, or modified to be more generally useful. Comments can be made multiple ways. A one-line comment can begin with 2 hyphens ( -- ). In AppleScript 2.0, first released in Mac OS X Leopard , it may also begin with a number sign (#). This permits a self-contained AppleScript script to be stored as an executable text file beginning with

3212-421: The Script Editor, denotes continuation of a single statement across multiple lines.) Each user interaction method can return the values of buttons clicked, items chosen or text entered for further processing. For example: Whereas Apple events are a way to send messages into applications, AppleScript is a particular language designed to send Apple events. In keeping with the objective of ease-of-use for beginners,

3285-484: The TI and HP graphing calculators are also mentioned. PC-based C cross-compilers for some of the TI and HP machines used with tools that convert between C and Perl, Rexx, AWK, and shell scripts to Perl, Modern Pascal, VBScript to and from Perl make it possible to write a program in a glue language for eventual implementation (as a compiled program) on the calculator. A number of text editors support macros written either using

3358-669: The United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Indonesia. Its content was also incorporated into a number of other IDG publications. In France, IDG bought Golden magazine, released in 1991, renamed it into Macworld France in 1996. Two years later, it has been merged with Univers Mac and renamed Univers Macworld . Publication ended probably in 2004. Macworld has also published in Indonesia by Megindo Tunggal Sejahtera , between 2008 until December 2011. The Macworld Podcast

3431-415: The Xcode package since Mac OS X Snow Leopard . AppleScriptObjC allows AppleScripts to use Cocoa classes and methods directly. The following table shows the availability of AppleScriptObjC in various versions of macOS: AppleScriptObjC can be used in all subsequent Mac OS X versions. A graphical, modular editing environment in which workflows are built up from actions . It is intended to duplicate many of

3504-503: The ability to build scripts intuitively by recording user actions. Such AppleScript recordability has to be engineered into the app—the app must support Apple events and AppleScript recording; as Finder supports AppleScript recording, it can be useful for reference. When AppleScript Editor (Script Editor) is open and the Record button clicked, user actions for recordable apps are converted to their equivalent AppleScript commands and output to

3577-475: The advent of graphical user interfaces, a specialized kind of scripting language emerged for controlling a computer. These languages interact with the same graphic windows, menus, buttons, and so on, that a human user would. They do this by simulating the actions of a user. These languages are typically used to automate user actions. Such languages are also called " macros " when control is through simulated key presses or mouse clicks, as well as tapping or pressing on

3650-406: The application or to rebuild it after each tweak (which can take a significant amount of time). The scripting languages used for this purpose range from the more common and more famous Lua and Python to lesser-known ones such as AngelScript and Squirrel . Macworld Macworld is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc. , published by Foundry,

3723-512: The application's Scripting Dictionary (distributed as part of the application), which can be viewed in any script editor . Elements are generally grouped into suites, according to loose functional relationships between them. There are two basic kinds of elements present in any suite: classes and commands. All scriptable applications share a few basic commands and objects, usually called the Standard Suite—commands to open, close or save

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3796-445: The automation facilities of an underlying system. Embedding of such general-purpose scripting languages instead of developing a new language for each application also had obvious benefits, relieving the application developer of the need to code a language translator from scratch and allowing the user to apply skills learned elsewhere. Some software incorporates several different scripting languages. Modern web browsers typically provide

3869-520: The behavior of system programs (in this sense, one might think of shells as being descendants of IBM's JCL, or Job Control Language , which was used for exactly this purpose). Many of these languages' interpreters double as command-line interpreters such as the Unix shell or the MS-DOS COMMAND.COM . Others, such as AppleScript offer the use of English-like commands to build scripts. With

3942-469: The best thing we have that works. It exemplifies the Mac's advantages over iOS for tinkerers and advanced users." In October 2016, longtime AppleScript product manager and automation evangelist Sal Soghoian left Apple when his position was eliminated "for business reasons". Veterans in the Mac community such as John Gruber and Andy Ihnatko generally responded with concern, questioning Apple's commitment to

4015-416: The block between repeat and end repeat lines a number of times. The looping can be prematurely stopped with command exit repeat . Repeat forever. Repeat a given number of times. Conditional loops. The block inside repeat while loop executes as long as the condition evaluates to true. The condition is re-evaluated after each execution of the block. The repeat until loop is otherwise identical, but

4088-433: The block is executed as long as the condition evaluates to false. Loop with a variable. When starting the loop, the variable is assigned to the start value. After each execution of the block, the optional step value is added to the variable. Step value defaults to 1. Scripting language Originally, scripting was limited to automating an operating system shell and languages were relatively simple. Today, scripting

4161-422: The code. The following code starts at main , then calls printHelloWorld which prints "Hello World". In contrast, the following Python code prints "Hello World" without the main function or other syntax such as a class definition required by Java. Scripts are often created or modified by the person executing them, but they are also often distributed, such as when large portions of games are written in

4234-408: The developer community and pro users. Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi responded in an email saying that "We have every intent to continue our support for the great automation technologies in macOS!", though Jeff Gamet at The Mac Observer opined that it did little to assuage his doubt about the future of Apple automation in general and AppleScript in particular. For

4307-399: The following: For the user, hundreds or thousands of steps in multiple applications have been reduced to the single act of running the script, and the task is accomplished in much less time and with no possibility of random human error. A large complex script could be developed to run only once, while other scripts are used again and again. An application's scriptable elements are visible in

4380-407: The functions of AppleScript without the necessity for programming knowledge. Automator has an action specifically designed to contain and run AppleScripts, for tasks that are too complex for Automator's simplified framework. These background-only applications, packaged with macOS, are used to allow AppleScript to access features that would not normally be scriptable. As of Mac OS X 10.6.3 they include

4453-516: The language. AppleScript is primarily a scripting language developed by Apple to do inter-application communication (IAC) using Apple events . AppleScript is related to, but different from, Apple events. Apple events are designed to exchange data between and control other applications in order to automate repetitive tasks. AppleScript has some processing abilities of its own, in addition to sending and receiving Apple events to applications. AppleScript can do basic calculations and text processing, and

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4526-432: The large and programming in the small ". In this view, scripting is glue code , connecting software components , and a language specialized for this purpose is a glue language . Pipelines and shell scripting are archetypal examples of glue languages, and Perl was initially developed to fill this same role. Web development can be considered a use of glue languages, interfacing between a database and web server . But if

4599-621: The operating system itself. AppleScript Studio , released with Mac OS X 10.2 as part of Xcode , and later AppleScriptObjC framework, released in Mac OS X 10.6 , allowed users to build Cocoa applications using AppleScript. In a 2006 article, Macworld included AppleScript among its rankings of Apple's 30 most significant products to date, placing it at #17. In a 2013 article for Macworld , veteran Mac software developer and commentator John Gruber concluded his reflection on "the unlikely persistence of AppleScript" by noting: "In theory, AppleScript could be much better; in practice, though, it's

4672-527: The operating system or application. When the GUI provides the appropriate interfaces, as in the IBM Workplace Shell , a generic scripting language, e.g. OREXX , can be used for writing GUI scripts. Application specific languages can be split in many different categories, i.e. standalone based app languages (executable) or internal application specific languages (postscript, xml, gscript as some of

4745-432: The publishing and prepress world, often tying together complex workflows. This was a key factor in retaining the Macintosh's dominant position in publishing and prepress, even after QuarkXpress and other publishing applications were ported to Microsoft Windows. After some uncertainty about the future of AppleScript on Apple's next generation OS, the move to Mac OS X (around 2002) and its Cocoa frameworks greatly increased

4818-820: The scriptable applications for: Plug-ins for AppleScript developed by Apple or third parties. They are designed to extend the built-in command set, expanding AppleScript's features and making it somewhat less dependent on functionality provided by applications. macOS includes a collection of scripting additions referred to as Standard Additions ( StandardAdditions.osax ) that adds a set of commands and classes that are not part of AppleScript's core features, including user interaction dialogs, reading and writing files, file system commands, date functions, and text and mathematical operations; without this OSAX, AppleScript would have no capacity to perform many basic actions not directly provided by an application. While applications can define specialized classes (or data types), AppleScript also has

4891-401: The standard language for end-user development across the company and within its classic Mac OS operating system, and for interprocess communication between Apple and non-Apple products. HyperTalk could be used by novices to program a HyperCard stack. Apple engineers recognized that a similar, but more object-oriented scripting language could be designed to be used with any application , and

4964-572: The standardization of the language as ECMAScript has made it popular as a general-purpose embeddable language. In particular, the Mozilla implementation SpiderMonkey is embedded in several environments such as the Yahoo! Widget Engine . Other applications embedding ECMAScript implementations include the Adobe products Adobe Flash ( ActionScript ) and Adobe Acrobat (for scripting PDF files). Tcl

5037-422: The time being, AppleScript remains one component of macOS automation technologies, along with Automator , Shortcuts , Services , and shell scripting . AppleScript was designed to be used as an accessible end-user scripting language, offering users an intelligent mechanism to control applications, and to access and modify data and documents. AppleScript uses Apple events , a set of standardized data formats that

5110-478: The usefulness and flexibility of AppleScript. Cocoa applications allow application developers to implement basic scriptability for their apps with minimal effort, broadening the number of applications that are directly scriptable. At the same time, the shift to the Unix underpinnings and AppleScript's ability to run Unix commands directly, with the do shell script command, allowed AppleScripts much greater control over

5183-444: The widely distributed scripts, respectively implemented by Adobe, MS and Google) among others include an idiomatic scripting language tailored to the needs of the application user. Likewise, many computer game systems use a custom scripting language to express the programmed actions of non-player characters and the game environment. Languages of this sort are designed for a single application; and, while they may superficially resemble

5256-565: The word "the" can legally be used anywhere in the script in order to enhance readability: it has no effect on the functionality of the script. A failsafe calculator: A simple username and password dialog box sequence. Here, the username is John and password is app123: Script editors provide a unified programing environment for AppleScripts, including tools for composing, validating, compiling, running, and debugging scripts. They also provide mechanisms for opening and viewing AppleScript dictionaries from scriptable applications, saving scripts in

5329-456: Was created as an extension language but has come to be used more frequently as a general-purpose language in roles similar to Python , Perl , and Ruby . On the other hand, Rexx was originally created as a job control language, but is widely used as an extension language as well as a general-purpose language. Perl is a general-purpose language, but had the Oraperl (1990) dialect, consisting of

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