Our first potential flame war: which scripting language?

Phil Beauchamp (Phil.Beauchamp@ARRAYdev.com)
Wed, 26 Aug 1998 16:33:59 -0400

>If you're a member of this list, then you've *probably* downloaded the
>source code for AbiWord.
>
>If you've downloaded the source code for AbiWord, then you *probably*
>noticed that the source tree is pretty big.
>
>If you noticed that the source tree is pretty big, you *probably*
>checked to find out why, and noticed that we include the entire
>JavaScript engine from the Mozilla source distribution.
>
>If you noticed JavaScript, then you *probably* noticed that the
>source code is there, but it's not being built, because we're not
>actually using it.
>
>Yet.
>
>It has been our intention all along for AbiWord, as well as the other
>applications in AbiSuite, to have a scripting language. Our plan of
>record has been to use JavaScript, specifically, the implementation
>from Netscape. We're starting to revisit this issue. We'd like to
>ask for the opinions of people on the list. It *may* result in yet
>another scripting language flame war, (we hope not) but we're
>asking anyway. :-)
>
>JavaScript
>--
>Pros
> nice syntax
> good mindshare in our target market
> object oriented features
> code base is probably high quality, having
> been used in several shipping releases of
> Netscape's browser.
>Cons
> mindshare may be too closely associated with
> web browsing object models, which we will not have
> NPL license is incompatible with the GPL, resulting in
> the fact that we would never be able to use any
> GPL code in AbiSource projects.
> no default or existing bindings to GUI toolkits
>
>Tcl
>--
>Pros
> easy to embed
> 9 year history -- code base is mature and reasonably stable
> built-in bindings to Tk
>Cons
> ugly syntax
> no built-in OO features (yes, we know about [incr Tcl])
> no mindshare in our target market
> terrible name (we'd have to market it as AbiScript, or something
> like that)
> Tk doesn't work and play well with others (we'd probably have
> to write the whole app GUI in Tk)
>
>Perl
>--
>Pros
> doesn't matter, see the cons section
>Cons
> hopelessly arcane, unreadable syntax
>
>Python
>--
>Pros
> readable
> powerful language
> multiple GUI toolkit bindings (ie stuff other than its Tk default)
>Cons
> terrible name (we'd have to market it as AbiScript, or something
> like that)
> uses indenting to delimit blocks (aaack!)
> no mindshare in our target market
>
>Some of the stuff above is my opinion. Some of it is the opinion our
>target market will have. For example, personally, I rather like Perl,
>but its syntax is patently absurd for a target market which includes
>people like my Dad, or people like the VB crowd.
>

Would you care to explain this claim?
Personally, I find Perl much more intuitive and easy to read than VB.
(If it's done well.)

I've had a much easier time learning Perl than I did VB.

Perl also has a well organized module and library development, and is used
by many more people than Python or TCL. Which means more support,
documentation
and a greater ability for other tools and scripts to be able to integrate
well with AbiWord.

I don't understand why you would shoot it down so quickly.

>Personally, my favorite choice, at the moment, is Python. However,
>I'm still doing some due-diligence.
>
>Opinions?

This archive was generated by hypermail 1.03b2.