From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 25 04:55:29 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B2C141065674 for ; Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:55:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from saifikhan@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0506.google.com (rv-out-0506.google.com [209.85.198.234]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 843898FC0A for ; Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:55:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from saifikhan@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id b25so5486841rvf.43 for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:55:29 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:sender:received:in-reply-to :references:date:x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=wy4qZAQUBSN0rGJSpAZIErf0f6hbjN8fwEk4jfgDSnk=; b=Pbe+5tGM2aYvdAEJznL/Jf7Yuo3dkHpgYonncu/m794oI9NaCtLQim5DjTfhea/hBK 6hMgMH5w4svPi49rFUnwYa/kum4OqNm8/Ei3hPI3E9YvBgXEfdB5Qwe82eqOKSqs6uYI A8EK7ugzERkjHrdm/cXn98UjY5pngA5PpQyMk= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; b=ZDQjaPP5KPwRHYTY9BQ8RQg/tb2poVNg0hTCIXMHw3cHh7k8jHXlfBG3tU1bAe0B/W 6pXJjK7+tBz6nWi1Vp0CcNj+l46dFMd6j4W/7e/8HmmDe6HhUh3b6UGjERKAs04DGYWy 2jKHEpQYrQNG2mQybvjnvWxhWCIkMtZIWe0uo= MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: saifikhan@gmail.com Received: by 10.141.128.19 with SMTP id f19mr1407005rvn.9.1232859329280; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:55:29 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <237c27100901241934y64525bcey93103ae207c7c88f@mail.gmail.com> References: <237c27100901181541n412f66c3v24ebae43b9efc313@mail.gmail.com> <18804.55465.773953.874060@almost.alerce.com> <237c27100901241934y64525bcey93103ae207c7c88f@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:55:29 +0000 X-Google-Sender-Auth: 73202c5a4eb2cfff Message-ID: <9a52b1190901242055r731a6622xb849bcd0b0b48782@mail.gmail.com> From: Saifi Khan To: freebsd-questions Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Embedded scripting language advice sought X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:55:30 -0000 On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 3:34 AM, Linda Messerschmidt wrote: > On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 2:46 PM, George Hartzell wrote: >> I don't have any useful advice to offer, but I would love it if you >> would summarize anything interesting that you get. >> >> I do a lot of computational biology work and am always interested in >> extension language for my computing systems. > > There was not a lot of response. One suggestion for Tcl and one for Ruby. > > I figured that all of the possibilities were going to be a pain to > develop in their own unique way, so that was probably not the best > evaluation criteria. The best choice was going to be the one that the > people who were going to use it every day were the most comfortable > with. > > So what I did was code up little samples in each of the serious > contenders: Lua, Python, Ruby, and Tcl. Without telling people which > language was which, I sent them around for votes. I really liked the > Tcl syntax and I thought it was going to do really well, but Python > came back the winner. > > Even so, I kept researching for farther-flung alternatives and turned > up a couple of others as well, although several of the "embedded > languages" are pretty stale, dead, or haven't gotten past > 0.0.1-pre-alpha. Of the "haven't heard of it before" languages, only > one called Pike earned serious consideration. (Technically I had > heard of its predecessor LPC, but only as a result of a misspent > youth. :-) ) > > Pike and Python went head to head and, probably since our team is > heavy with C++ programmers, Pike came out on top. > > So, we've started doing a proof-of-concept using Pike and we'll see > how it goes. So far so good, and it's actually a pretty fun language > to work with. > > -LM Are you saying the choice is made on the basis of 'likeability' and not 'technical merit' ? -- thanks Saifi.