Good discussion topic Robert, This idea goes back a long ways on the List, if I recall correctly.
Languages like Witango, Lasso, PHP, ColdFusion, classic ASP, Python and some versions of Perl are all very similar in that they are all "interpreted" languages, meaning the code is only interpreted at run-time (not compiled). And they all use "scalar" type Variables in one form or another, like you described where the Variable type is flexible between strings, numbers and other types. Now that I've started doing some development in C# .NET, I much more clearly appreciate the differences, and the benefits of both. Although I'm not privy to the inner workings of Phil's brain (a scary thought :-), clearly the new <@DEFINE> Metatag and Java Compiler he is working on is moving in this sort of direction. It's a pretty exciting concept when you think about it. With the exception of classic ASP (now ASP.NET), I don't think any other web language has made the transition from "interpreted" to "compiled", and Witango is inching closer all the time. I've always like the idea of how the Editor stores our programming constructs, operators, statements, properties, etc, as XML - so it can be "parsed" as a complete language. In theory, with all this information stored in such a friendly manner, it can be parsed into almost any language...... Now if we could just get some news on the .NET compiler that Phil hinted at ;-) Cheers..... Scott Cadillac, Witango.org - http://witango.org 403-281-6090 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Information for the Witango Developer Community --------------------- XML-Extranet - http://xml-extra.net 403-281-6090 - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Well-formed Development (for hire) --------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert Garcia [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 9:41 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Witango-Talk: Boosting Server Performance, and TCFs > > > One more point about this. It is the scripting language that is a > performance hit, and is designed for humans. For example, > think of all > the "lookups" that must be performed with witango tags, even > if you are > a compulsive scoper like I am. The witango server must parse > the result > of each tag from the inside out. Especially when dynamic > referencing is > done. When I look at some of my tafs, I wonder how the server > can parse > all that as quickly as it does. Also, tango has to look at > the contents > of each variable and determine how to treat it. That must take a huge > hit. For instance, think of the logic to determine what to do > with the > contents of a variable local$foo if the contenst are "0.44". > At times, > witango treats this like a string, and at times, it treats it > like as a > floating point number. Now what if the value is "$ 10.49". It now has > to look up money formatting to determine if this should be > treated as a > floating point number and there allow math manipulation. Not > only that, > but you can have a variable local$foo, and assign a string > value to it > at one time, and a number at another, and perform calcs on it, and > Witango won't bark at you at all. As humans, it is easy for > us, we just > code it and the server figures out the rest, but that is a > lot of logic > for the server to work through at any given moment. > Especially when we > are looping through this kind of stuff. > > I imagine witango would gain a significant performance increase if we > were required to "type" variables prior to using them. The drawback > would be that if you type local$foo as an integer, it will > only accept > whole numbers. If you try to assign a string, it will be "0", and if > you assign 1.44, it will be "1". If you type local$foo as a > string and > assign "222.44", you won't be able to perform calcs on it without a > conversion. > > I am not sure how old code would work, which is probably why witango > has not implemented this. > > Robert. > > On Monday, June 30, 2003, at 08:09 PM, Atrix Wolfe wrote: > > > makes sense to us, however to reference an apple, it would > have to go > > through a whole bunch of lookups just to get to the data it > needs. If > > you > > could see your computer working inside somehow it would be > jumping all > > around in RAM just to get to one spot that it could have > gotten to much > > quicker if it went straight there, not to mention all the memory > > overhead to > > store all the lookup tables. > > -- > > Robert Garcia > President - BigHead Technology > CTO - eventpix.com > 2781 N Carlmont Pl > Simi Valley, Ca 93065 > ph: 805.522.8577 - cell: 805.501.1390 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] - [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://bighead.net/ - http://eventpix.com/ - http://theradmac.com/ > > ______________________________________________________________ > __________ > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Go to http://www.witango.com/maillist.taf > ________________________________________________________________________ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Go to http://www.witango.com/maillist.taf
