From: Sean Middleditch <elanthis@...>
Date: 2001-08-25T09:26:06+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:20329] Re: Backwards language

On 25 Aug 2001 08:12:39 +0900, Todd Gillespie wrote:
> Sean Middleditch <elanthis@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> : On 25 Aug 2001 05:52:34 +0900, Todd Gillespie wrote:
> :> Have you hung out around perl-porters and talked with the Parrot people?
> 
> : Last I saw Parrot was an April Fool's joke....
> 
> I figured as much.
> 
> Parrot was the title of a new language in an April Fool's joke.  A few
> months ago perl-porters started working on the Perl6 runtime, and ESR
> talked the Python people into working with them to build a common
> runtime.  In reference to the joke they called it Parrot, but the project
> is very real.
> 

Ah.  Well, again, that runtime I'm sure is still a lot larger and such
than I'm looking for.   ^,^

> There is consideration to add Ruby to Parrot.  A big thread about this
> blew through here quite recently.  Check the archives.
> 
> : Ugly language.  Not what I'm looking for.  My language is intended
> : mostly for games, which are usually "Scripted" by players who are not
> : experienced programmers.  Heck, the first large "program" I ever wrote
> : was in Hexen's Action Script language.  granted, I knew some BASIC and a
> : smidgeon of C at the time...
> 
> : Still, TCL isn't what I'm looking for.  ^,^
> 
> I really can't follow your flow of argument through that paragraph.
> Tcl was designed for use by non-programmers scripting together larger
> elements.  It sounds exactly like what you are looking for.  What bothers
> you about it?  Prefix notation?
> 

Stick a programming novice in front of it with nothing but a couple of
README's and such that would likely come with a commercially produced
app embedding the language.

> I dislike Tcl for a few reasons, but it is very simple for beginners, and

Beginners to TCL or beginners to programming?  ~,^

> as I said, it is the easiest to embed languages out there.  The
> documentation for embedding Tcl in any conceivable environment is
> extensive to say the least.  The runtime is extremely simple, the
> message-passing is transparent, memory usage is small.

Hmm, I've never looked into the internals of TCL, the syntax has always
been to my severe disliking.  I'll have to take a look at it, perhaps I
can learn a thing or twenty.  ^,^

Thanks for the tips.   While I still highly doubt TCL would fit my
purposes (one of which being, as I though I had said, that I'm having
fun learning how a programming language's internals work), I'm
definitely going to take renewed interest in TCL.

Sean Etc.

>