OK, let's see. This has gotten out of hand a little quicker
than I expected. Let's see what I can do to settle things down
a bit:
1. I meant no offense to the Perl crowd. I *like* Perl, really. It
honestly just never occurred to me that anyone would really assert
that the number one sysadmin language in the world should be
used as a macro scripting language in a consumer-focused mass market
spreadsheet. My perspective has been widened, and I repent.
By the way, one of the readers here snipped my Perl remarks out of
context and posted them to a Perl-centric forum. This apparent
attempt to cast me as the enemy of all Perl fans was not
appreciated. :-)
2. Choice of scripting language: I am still not convinced, but
this is something to think about. However, someone here griped,
saying that the spirit of open source required us to be open about
choice of scripting language. I'm still not sure that we are
interested in supporting multiple languages, and we are certainly
not interested in providing technical support for multiple languages.
The beauty of open source is that if you don't like our choice, you
are free to take the source and do it yourself. The beauty of
open source is NOT that we, as project coordinators, are required
to make everyone happy. :-)
3. Someone said that I shouldn't be putting myself in other people's
shoes. Sorry if I am misparaphrasing. If I understood correctly, then
I'll confess I really disagree. One of the major problems in the
software world is that programmers are not like normal people, and that
programmers like to code for themselves, not for users. Trying to view
things from the point of view of your target user is the very essence
of good software design. It's core, foundational, and absolutely
essential. Have I misunderstood?
Finally, I take responsibility for this flame war -- I started it, I
guess. I am not trying to step on anyone's toes. Religious wars
about technology choice are usually of no interest to me, and this
one is no exception. I'm just trying to identify the best choice
for our needs. I remain a fan of Tcl, Perl, Python, and JavaScript.
I just haven't convinced myself yet which, if any of them are the right
choice for AbiSuite.
Remember AbiSuite will be a cross-platform, mass market office suite.
Choice of a scripting language is likely to be dictated by factors
other than technological coolness. I suspect that if you haven't figured
this out already, you will soon -- I am a hacker, but marketing is my
hobby. I could drone on for pages about why marketing is so important,
but I'll spare you. Suffice it to say that the choice of language is
something which should be made with an eye toward the eventual market
for the tool.
In other words, don't ask yourself which scripting language *you* would
like. Ask yourself which one your Mom would like. This may not
be the perfect guiding question, but it's probably closer.
:-)
