Who says you can only have one scripting language? Put in a couple and let
people use whichever they prefer.
Advantages:
don't need to learn a new scripting language
Disadvantages:
more code to maintain
--
+----- William Aoki ----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------+
| aka [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://raven.umnh.utah.edu/~waoki/ |
# N 40 46.668' W 111 52.056 #
# vi rules! This message made possible by Unix #
On Tue, 25 Aug 1998, Eric W. Sink wrote:
> Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 17:14:12 -0500
> From: Eric W. Sink <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Our first potential flame war: which scripting language?
>
>
> If you're a member of this list, then you've *probably* downloaded the
> source code for AbiWord.
>
> If you've downloaded the source code for AbiWord, then you *probably*
> noticed that the source tree is pretty big.
>
> If you noticed that the source tree is pretty big, you *probably*
> checked to find out why, and noticed that we include the entire
> JavaScript engine from the Mozilla source distribution.
>
> If you noticed JavaScript, then you *probably* noticed that the
> source code is there, but it's not being built, because we're not
> actually using it.
>
> Yet.
>
> It has been our intention all along for AbiWord, as well as the other
> applications in AbiSuite, to have a scripting language. Our plan of
> record has been to use JavaScript, specifically, the implementation
> from Netscape. We're starting to revisit this issue. We'd like to
> ask for the opinions of people on the list. It *may* result in yet
> another scripting language flame war, (we hope not) but we're
> asking anyway. :-)
>
> JavaScript
> --
> Pros
> nice syntax
> good mindshare in our target market
> object oriented features
> code base is probably high quality, having
> been used in several shipping releases of
> Netscape's browser.
> Cons
> mindshare may be too closely associated with
> web browsing object models, which we will not have
> NPL license is incompatible with the GPL, resulting in
> the fact that we would never be able to use any
> GPL code in AbiSource projects.
> no default or existing bindings to GUI toolkits
>
> Tcl
> --
> Pros
> easy to embed
> 9 year history -- code base is mature and reasonably stable
> built-in bindings to Tk
> Cons
> ugly syntax
> no built-in OO features (yes, we know about [incr Tcl])
> no mindshare in our target market
> terrible name (we'd have to market it as AbiScript, or something
> like that)
> Tk doesn't work and play well with others (we'd probably have
> to write the whole app GUI in Tk)
>
> Perl
> --
> Pros
> doesn't matter, see the cons section
> Cons
> hopelessly arcane, unreadable syntax
>
> Python
> --
> Pros
> readable
> powerful language
> multiple GUI toolkit bindings (ie stuff other than its Tk default)
> Cons
> terrible name (we'd have to market it as AbiScript, or something
> like that)
> uses indenting to delimit blocks (aaack!)
> no mindshare in our target market
>
> Some of the stuff above is my opinion. Some of it is the opinion our
> target market will have. For example, personally, I rather like Perl,
> but its syntax is patently absurd for a target market which includes
> people like my Dad, or people like the VB crowd.
>
> Personally, my favorite choice, at the moment, is Python. However,
> I'm still doing some due-diligence.
>
> Opinions?
>
>
>
