Bloated Compiled AppleScripts

A SpamSieve user sent me a screenshot showing that the three AppleScripts he was using from Entourage had grown to 3.3 MB, 172K, and 6 MB. Not surprisingly, he thought SpamSieve might be storing data there, and so was hesitant to delete them before updating to the new 1.2.1 scripts. SpamSieve actually does not store any data in the scripts, but somehow their resource forks are filling up as they are run. One of the Entourage scripts that ships with SpamSieve has bloated to 340K (see screenshots below), even though the text of the script is only 351 bytes according to Script Debugger. I’ve also seen this happen with the scripts that ship with BBAutoComplete. Does anyone know what causes the bloat?

AppleScript BBAutoComplete SpamSieve

The Point of (Any) Semantics

Lambda links to a posting by Schemer Matthias Felleisen about the usefulness of formal semantics in building programming language systems. As an aside, The Types Forum looks like a great resource. It’s moderated by the author of what I’ve heard is an excellent new types book.

The Evil That Is the DMCA

Adam Engst writes about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for TidBITS:

What we’re seeing here is how the DMCA in essence props up the status quo, denying that legitimate research could be done outside the halls of academia or a company’s R&D department. Left on the outside are the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers... oh hell, go read the rest of “Here’s to the crazy ones” from Apple’s Think Different ad campaign for yourself. Whether we’re talking about Apple’s target audience or the open source community that has had Microsoft running scared is immaterial. The point is that the DMCA, supported by this court ruling, prevents that sort of person from doing anything that’s not sanctioned.

SpamSieve on VersionTracker

There are now two reviews on VersionTracker that give SpamSieve bad ratings because it doesn’t delete predicted spam messages. I consider that an essential safety feature because no automated solution is perfect, and most people don’t want to lose any legitimate messages. One can’t please everybody, I guess.

SpamSieve