The Telescript programming language (opens in new tab)

(en.wikipedia.org)

66 pointsbluerobotcat7y ago13 comments

13 comments

12 comments · 6 top-level

pavlov7y ago· 4 in thread

This is probably posted now thanks to the Andy Hertzfeld interview from the other day [1] where he discussed Telescript as a failure.

The notion of a restricted server-side language for user scripts still sounds useful and an unfilled niche.

[1] https://www.notion.so/tools-and-craft/01-andy-hertzfeld

jnwatson7y ago

Mobile code was dying before, but the final nail in the coffin is the Spectre/Meltdown class of vulnerabilities (with new variants coming out monthly).

It seems modern microprocessors simply aren't designed to run untrusted code.

mindcrime7y ago

Mobile code was dying before, but the final nail in the coffin is the Spectre/Meltdown class of vulnerabilities (with new variants coming out monthly).

Is it though? I mean, has anybody stopped using Javascript as a result of Meltdown/Spectre?

True, Java applets largely died off, but that was as much because it took Sun WAY too long to ship the "Consumer JRE", coupled with a rash of Java security issues over a certain window of time, that made people scared to enable Java in their browsers. I doubt many more people disabled Java after Spectre/Meltdown, than before.

pavlov7y ago

Couldn’t one run user scripts on separate servers with non-OoO CPUs: low-end ARM or MIPS or RISCV or whatever?

1 more reply

dang7y ago

That interview was discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17475413.

fmajid7y ago· 1 in thread

I actually worked on General Magic circa 1994-1995 at France Télécom. The whole tech stack was garbage, despite AT&T’s valiant efforts to salvage it.

dang7y ago

It would be much better if you could turn that word "garbage" into a sentence, or better a paragraph, so readers could learn something. I'm sure people would be interested to hear your experiences.

puzzle7y ago· 1 in thread

I loved this language. I still have all the papers somewhere. Unfortunately, the announcement of Java killed the few remaining chances it had of outliving General Magic.

pmarreck7y ago

Was the stack-based assembly it compiled to similar to Forth?

cwyers7y ago

> In 1990, Marc Porat convinced then-Apple-CEO John Sculley that the future of computing lay not in desktop personal computers, but much smaller portable devices combining computing power, communications systems, and data located on network-accessible servers.

Well that was staggeringly prescient.

krishanath7y ago

Here's something few people know: Sun saw Telescript as a threat (because Sun was all about "the network is the computer" and now Telescript was invading this space) and started the Java project in response. Microsoft saw General Magic's social interface and deemed it to be a threat to Windows. Their response was "Microsoft Bob".

wmf7y ago

In retrospect, Telescript and mobile agents were a bet against the Internet; if you have good connectivity it's easier to use RPC.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

13 comments

12 comments · 6 top-level

pavlov7y ago· 4 in thread

This is probably posted now thanks to the Andy Hertzfeld interview from the other day [1] where he discussed Telescript as a failure.

The notion of a restricted server-side language for user scripts still sounds useful and an unfilled niche.

[1] https://www.notion.so/tools-and-craft/01-andy-hertzfeld

jnwatson7y ago

Mobile code was dying before, but the final nail in the coffin is the Spectre/Meltdown class of vulnerabilities (with new variants coming out monthly).

It seems modern microprocessors simply aren't designed to run untrusted code.

mindcrime7y ago

Mobile code was dying before, but the final nail in the coffin is the Spectre/Meltdown class of vulnerabilities (with new variants coming out monthly).

Is it though? I mean, has anybody stopped using Javascript as a result of Meltdown/Spectre?

pavlov7y ago

Couldn’t one run user scripts on separate servers with non-OoO CPUs: low-end ARM or MIPS or RISCV or whatever?

1 more reply

dang7y ago

That interview was discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17475413.

fmajid7y ago· 1 in thread

I actually worked on General Magic circa 1994-1995 at France Télécom. The whole tech stack was garbage, despite AT&T’s valiant efforts to salvage it.

dang7y ago

It would be much better if you could turn that word "garbage" into a sentence, or better a paragraph, so readers could learn something. I'm sure people would be interested to hear your experiences.

puzzle7y ago· 1 in thread

I loved this language. I still have all the papers somewhere. Unfortunately, the announcement of Java killed the few remaining chances it had of outliving General Magic.

pmarreck7y ago

Was the stack-based assembly it compiled to similar to Forth?

cwyers7y ago

Well that was staggeringly prescient.

krishanath7y ago

wmf7y ago

In retrospect, Telescript and mobile agents were a bet against the Internet; if you have good connectivity it's easier to use RPC.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse