On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 10:55:16AM -0700, Stewart Stremler wrote:
>
> This thread started with a homily about premature optimization. IIRC,
> Lan made a comment about using scripting languages for GUIs. He was
> accused of making rash generalizations.
>
That Lan! Always grinding his own axe.
> That there's variety where performance matters is true. Using a scripting
> language -- or just an interpreted language -- for a GUI is Not A Bad Idea.
> Even in many of those places where performance is king.
>
There are times when I don't see the two as mutually exclusive. A lot of
GUI programs (like anything that begins system-config-*) are really
nothing more than structured information gatherers that then launch
arcane compiled programs that run like a bat out of hell, but require
hours of man page reading to compose a simple command line dispatching
them.
I personally find this very healthy. Why should a user have to memorize
and type difficult syntax for a program he uses perhaps once a month?
And why should a working program (cdrecord and cdparanoia come to mind)
have to be constantly rewritten as ideas in GUI interfaces change? Just
wrap that sucker in a little expect/tcl/python. But then, which is the
programming language of the app? Tcl or C? And which is the
optimization, the part that runs fast or the part that saves hours of
figuring things out?
Which is why, more and more, I am viewing the whole computer and all its
tools as one continuous system; and I find pronouncements as to what is
the One True Application Language to be, well, a little shallow and off
point.
<meooow -- hist!>
--
Lan Barnes
Linux Guy, SCM Specialist
Tcl/Tk Enthusiast
Bush may not have been born stupid, but he has achieved stupidity, and now
he wears it as a badge of honor.
- Jacob Weisberg
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
