I’ve been reading through both the Python/PyTeal version of “Alice’s Auction,” and the Reach version. And I just viewed the “Why Reach?” video, and all of that makes sense to me (to the extent it can make sense to me, given that I know very little about Python, Teal, Reach, and JavaScript). But where I can easily see how the Python/PyTeal version explicitly connects to a Sandbox node (and I’ve also modified the “Getting Started” Java class, from “Your First Transaction,” to [1] use existing accounts, and [2] connect to TestNet through PureStake, rather than a Sandbox node),
I don’t see how the Reach version is connecting, or even what node (or even what network) it’s connecting to!
By way of background, I used to be fluent in PDP/11 and 8086 assemblers (and have probably forgotten more than most programmers ever knew about either), and for the past quarter-century, I’ve been the front-line of maintenance of a sizeable amount of code (we’re not talking thousands of lines, but thousands of pages) written in what’s called MI, which is the closest you can get to assembler on an IBM Midrange box, unless you work for IBM Rochester. But most of that MI code was actually generated from HLL code (specifically, RPG code) that was compiled and then disassembled.
So I’m very familiar with the Teal concept of “the assembler language of a virtual machine,” and also with the general way Reach, like any other HLL, abstracts away the nuts and bolts, even if huge amounts of the syntax still has me scratching my head.