Nombas, Un-Incorporated
Nombas doesn't exist any more. All the good stuff was sold to Openwave, then sold to someone else, then sold to someone else, then I lost track.
Sorry about that.
- Modern alternatives for Nombas products
- Useful links for people still using any old Nombas product
- Links for replacements to Nombas products
- Walks down memory lane
- More stuff
Modern alternatives for Nombas products:
If you're in need of embeddable script engines here's some good options to consider:
- If it must be embeddable and ecmascript-compliant consider
the free and open-source
engines from Adobe (they call it ActionScript but it's really EcmaScript) or the Mozilla engines. TheyV8 engine from Google. It may not be as wonderfullly amazingly great as the Nombas engine (what could ever be) but will do in a pinch. - If you need a pure-Java ecmascript engine... um... I'm not sure. I think mozilla maintains one as "rhino".
- If you want the smallest size and high performance, consider lua. lua is very close to matching the original Cmm language Nombas produced.
- For automating computer tasks involving interacting with other programs, Windows users have Windows Scripting Host, Macintosh users have AppleScript, and xnix users have a number of shell languages. I don't know that any push the abilities to manipulate the system quite as much as CEnvi/SE:Desk did, but they're still very powerful and there are a lot of developers and libraries to help out.
- Python exists on most systems, and certainly has all the power, and way way more libraries than CEnvi/SE:Desk ever did.
- The two features CEnvi/SE:Desk had that I wish were in the
above options are:
- ability to create standalone executables, independent of any other engine downloads
- ability to call *any* DLL or shared library directly from the script language, so that extension of any complexity may be made in the language itself
If you were a user of ScriptEase WebServer Edition:
- So you're the guy who bought SE:WSE, huh? I've always wanted to meet you. You'll be glad to know that server-side Javascript is making a big comeback with node.js and a bunch of related extensions.
If you were a user of Nombas distributed internet scripting (SE:DS):
- For plain transmission of data between two systems, in a way easier to implement than XML, JSON is the way to go.
- For use within web, interacting in semi-realtime, AJAX is all the rage now. Every javascript framework makes AJAX really easy for you.
- For the really fun stuff that SE:DS made easy, such as moving logic around between machines as-needed, look at dnode "freestyle r.p.c.". I haven't tried it yet myself, but from the documentation it looks to be excellently conceived and appears to match the SE:DS philosophy and patterns very closely. The only SE:DS concept I don't see in dnode is the security pattern, wherein remote calls can apply a level of security to exactly what parts of calls can be handled and what cannot (i.e. in dnode is there a way to prevent callers from making particularly dangerous calls, or do they have access to everything?).
If you used these or any lesser-known Nombas products and have any questions about them, contact Brent Noorda. I'll do what I can to help.
Useful links for people still using any old Nombas product:
- ISDK Developer Space - Manuals, Errata, Tips, and other stuff useful for anyone who is still working with a legacy Nombas ISDK. Apologies for links that no longer work.
- Old User Documents - Old documents for many Nombas products. If the product or version you're using is not in this list, contact Brent Noorda and maybe he'll be able to locate something for you.
Links for replacements to Nombas products:
- List of ECMAScript engines - Look to this Wikipedia page for other javascript engines, although only a couple have good embeddable libraries. ScriptEase isn't there anymore--which makes me sad--althought it still gets lots of legacy use.
- Rhino - Javascript engine written in Java. I don't know why it's not in the List of ECMAScript engines.
- lua.org - Not ecmascript, but is guided by a small/fast/embeddable/minimalist philosopy similar to the original Cmm.
- node.js - Server-side javascript. It's coming back, baby! I've been playing with node.js lately, and quite enjoy it. Imagine the fun of turning adding a couple of the old CEnvi features, and turning into a cross-platform desktop environment for automation, thin servers, and so on, then CEnvi/SE:Desk would be back......
- dnode "freestyle rpc" - I really nice-looking implementation of what we used to call "distributed scripting".
Walks down memory lane:
- Nombas, May 21, 1997 - The oldest internet archive version of the Nombas website. The Wayback Machine is cool! I'm kind of fond of the change made by December, 1997, especially the interview with the crotchety old man if you're answer to the portal question was NO. This is about when we were first showing off what we called "DSP", but is much mor common these days as "ajax" techniques.
- The "I Hate Scripting" Page - Interview with the Crotchety Old Man who hates scripting. Ptooey! Hilarious, if I do say so myself (and i do).
- Billy Likes CEnvi - The greatest fan mail ever. Young Billy gives CEnvi 1,000,000,000 stars and contributes (in pencil-written form) a sound library. I love this. Thanks, Billy.
- Scripting A - Z - A good-time presentation about the state of scripting in 1997, and what I thought the future would bring.
- Java, The Illusion - A 1995 essay I wrote against the marketing of Java (a little bit self-serving, but also a little bit true) and a follow-up where I cave-in to Java's 2 years of success.
- Dr. Dobb's first (1994) CEnvi/Cmm article - Good ol' Al Stevens recommended an early version of the standalone interpreter at about the time it won a PC Magazine Shareware of the Year award. Good times. I was skinny then, too.
- InfoWorld 1996 ScriptEase WebServer review - This 1996 review was my favorite not just because it was glowing, but because it showed up while we were at a tough week at Comdex, with stiff competition at every turn, and it provided a needed boost in the arm.
- "Tell me about..." - Our first attempts to make a web-based pitch for why people should use a scripting solution and why to use Nombas to do it.
- Nombas Technologies - One of the final attempts to define the core Nombas Technologies in a few pretty web pages.
- ISDK/Toolkit promo pages - Sales-oriented descriptions of SE:ISDK
- WMLScript - The cell-phone industry made a subset of EcmaScript because they thought javascript was too big. Even thought we disagreed we turned off bits of our engine and pumped out a WMLScript solution. Fortunately we're all over WMLScript now.
- Midas Widget Phone - Openwave did a bunch of stuff with Scriptease (browser, test environment, and a couple of new platforms). This is the only example I preserved (very poorly).
More stuff:
- X-Factor - The book "XSLT For Dummies" refers to this "X-Factor" windows application "to help make the task of learning XSLT easier". It was hosted at www.nombas.com but now it's here.