Some general questiosn concerning interpreted lanaguages (and their JIT couterparts).
How far do you think an interpreted language can go? In otherwords, to what extent could the more traditional set of compiled c/c++ programs on a system be replaced by interpreted versions.
We all know that scripting is great for good many tasks, but could scripting make for a good word processor, for instance? How about a Desktop Enviornment or Window Manager?
To what extent can Ruby programs be utilized to displace traditional binary apps on my PC?
Some general questiosn concerning interpreted lanaguages (and their JIT
couterparts).
How far do you think an interpreted language can go? In otherwords, to
what extent could the more traditional set of compiled c/c++ programs on
a system be replaced by interpreted versions.
Not this tired old refrain again… Every task has a purpose, so it
really doesn’t matter to what extend which language you use. Yes, perhaps
there are languages out there more suited to performing certain tasks than
others…
For example, I wouldn’t want to see a high-end graphics game written in
Ruby, it would be too slow.
We all know that scripting is great for good many tasks, but could
scripting make for a good word processor, for instance? How about a
Desktop Enviornment or Window Manager?
No – too slow.
To what extent can Ruby programs be utilized to displace traditional
binary apps on my PC?
We all know that scripting is great for good many tasks, but could
scripting make for a good word processor, for instance? How about a
Desktop Enviornment or Window Manager?
No – too slow.
A counter-argument: Look at SawFish. It’s critical sections are written
in C, using GTK and GDK to do drawing routines. However, the logic of
the window manager is written in Scheme/REP. Sawfish is also incredibly
flexible beacuse of this, Scheme being as dynamic as it is.
I don’t think that being interpreted makes this possible, it is being
dynamic. That said, dynamic is usually a feature of interpreted
languages, not compiled. (The most notable exception I can think of
being Objective C.)
Sawfish is plenty fast – faster than Metacity, often, which is written
in C alone.
I’d love to see many apps written in Ruby/Gnome2, or at least large
sections. A word processor with the logic written in Ruby would be easy
to hack, easy to fix. Same for other apps. In my experience, it’s fast
enough.
Andy and I’ve written an X-11 window manager, mostly in Ruby…
Cheers
Dave
···
On Nov 7, 2003, at 13:31, Thomas Adam wrote:
We all know that scripting is great for good many tasks, but could
scripting make for a good word processor, for instance? How about a
Desktop Enviornment or Window Manager?
----- Original Message -----
From: “Dave Thomas” dave@pragprog.com
To: “ruby-talk ML” ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 8:18 PM
Subject: Re: Power of Interpreted Languages
On Nov 7, 2003, at 13:31, Thomas Adam wrote:
We all know that scripting is great for good many tasks, but could
scripting make for a good word processor, for instance? How about a
Desktop Enviornment or Window Manager?
No – too slow.
Andy and I’ve written an X-11 window manager, mostly in Ruby…
Sorry - it was for a client (and it was fairly specialized: it was
designed for an internet kiosk, so it’s main job was to control rigidly
which windows could be displayed, and where)
Cheers
Dave
···
On Nov 7, 2003, at 21:30, John W. Long wrote:
Andy and I’ve written an X-11 window manager, mostly in Ruby…