Re: Re: Re: Cross platform perl development

[dragonchild]

I was part of a project that, among many other things, created our own scripting language. It was extremely basic, using \n to indicate the end of a statement and implemented only SET/JMP/JZ/JNZ/IF/ELSE/ENDIF/WHILE/FOR/RETURN. That was it.

Now, this wasn't OO. However, what concerns me is that you want to create an OO language and expect non-programmers to be able to handle it. That's got "Bad Plan"(tm) written all over it. Perl is the easiest "real" language to learn, except for VB. (Maybe that's why M$oft made VB their scripting language of choice?) Start small. If you're smart in your design, the language should be upgradeable without impacting anything else. (Maybe a Script::* set of modules?) Plus, demanding that your users actually understand the basics of procedural programming isn't unreasonable - it's almost expected, these days. If your users demand scripting capabilities, you can demand knowledge. (Unless, of course, you were planning on writing a GUI "editor" that allowed them to drag-and-drop statements from a list... if you're doing that, quit your job and write a game.)

As for bad code checking, use eval. Let the interpreter check bad code for you! Oh, you can do basic easy stuff, like balance parentheses and the like, but don't do any complicated syntax or nothing. Why kill yourself when Perl does it already??

[kapper]

Now, this wasn't OO. However, what concerns me is that you want to create an OO language and expect non-programmers to be able to handle it. That's got "Bad Plan"(tm) written all over it. Perl is the easiest "real" language to learn, except for VB. (Maybe that's why M$oft made VB their scripting language of choice?)

While I apreciate your comment, I must say that I strongly disagree with you. Very strict OO languages, can be made very learnable for non programmers by giving it the right interface. Have a look at what Alan Kay have done with Squeak, it certainly have made it very accesible to a lot of very inexperienced children....

Btw. most newer dialects of Logo are turing complete.. would you really say that Perl is easier to learn than Logo? *grin* =)

If your users demand scripting capabilities, you can demand knowledge

he he... but knowledge not including OO? The fact is that the system itself is build around the notion of objects. A web page for example is presented to the administrators as an object viewable through a web browser, so the object based thinking is there allready. For example, if the script writer want the name of a specific user, it might be available as an instance variable on the users object (ie. the page showing the CRM data for the specific user).

Unless, of course, you were planning on writing a GUI "editor" that allowed them to drag-and-drop statements from a list... if you're doing that, quit your job and write a game

Well.... I do plan to make a GUI which will make an easier entrance for inexperienced users, alongside the full access to the scripts. However, I don't see how this changes the knowledge required towards understanding procedural vs OO thinking.

Btw... we do alot of game programming, and quite frankly, it is a _lot_ harder than most people think.

As for bad code checking, use eval. Let the interpreter check bad code for you! Oh, you can do basic easy stuff, like balance parentheses and the like, but don't do any complicated syntax or nothing. Why kill yourself when Perl does it already??

Well, I didn't plan to kill myself, but simply use a YACC... the right tool can often make a big difference towards how hard a thing is to implement =)

Kasper