Scripting language of choice?

[Cheraphy]

Obviously our favorite language isn't always the most practical, but if you always had the choice and any language would do, what would you choose for your scripting language?

Personally, I've fallen in love with python. I'm tempted to look into ruby as well, and have considered playing with haskell's GHCi, but all in all python is my go to for scripting.

[zb0S216C]

xander337 wrote:

what would you choose for your scripting language?

Lua -- no questions asked.

Edit: A reason why:

Unlike Python, Lua isn't that strict with spacing. I find it stupid how a Python script will refuse to execute if the spacing isn't correct.

Additionally, Lua's syntax resembles C code, which I'm familiar with, so it's quite understandable. The downside to Lua is that integration with C/C++ is quite annoying.

_Wazzak

[LB]

LUA. It's so fast, even when you try to slow it down.

[Lachlan Easton]

I third lua

[BHX]

I consider LUA and Python. Never used them with C++ though (mostly just the normal tutorials of seeing the interpreted commands).

[Cheraphy]

Well the reason I like python so much is how everything I could ever hope to need is included in the standard.

[Duthomhas]

Tcl/Tk
(Or Jim, a fork.)



And no, that's not a Star Trek joke.

[rapidcoder]

for small administrative tasks, like looping throught all the files: Bash
for bigger things: Scala, because:

1. it has much better REPL than Python
2. it much faster than any scripting language (technically, it is compiled to machine code)
3. in most cases it is terser than Python / Ruby and almost just as dynamic
4. it has the biggest standard library
5. <rant mode> no stupid whitespace syntax </rant mode>

The only downside is it starts up half a second longer than Python. Not a big deal.

[Albatross]

For me, Perl. I enjoy the language's sheer power, and for the things I use it for it works quite well.

Furthermore, I believe that Perl is also a JIT-compiled language.

-Albatross

[moorecm]

I love Perl's extended regex syntax. If I'm on the command line, I like perl one-liners.

If I'm actually writing a script for something it depends on what I'm doing. If I'm writing some kind of install/backup script, I use Bash. If I'm processing text, such as XML, I usually use Perl. The problem with Perl is that it's too complicated to remember without using it often. I always have to re-learn parts of it to get things done (except for the one-liners).

I've been meaning to pick up Python but I haven't had the time recently. I hear it's great for "all of my scripting needs."

[chrisname]

x86 assembly.

[LB]

Is assembly even a scripting language?

[chrisname]

Can be.

[LB]

You mean, like invoking op codes from memory after using VirtualProtect (Windows)?

[chrisname]

No. Scripting languages usually are more expressive and more simple than programming languages, but x86 assembly is the simplest and most expressive language of them all. Here's "hello world" in 8086 assembly:

[bits    16]
[section .text]
[org     0x7c00]
_start:
        xor        ax,        ax
        mov        cs,        ax
        mov        ds,        ax
        mov        ss,        ax
        mov        sp,        0x9c00
        mov        si,        msg
        call        puts
hang:
        cli
        hlt
        jmp        hang
putchar:
        mov        ah,        0x0e
        int        0x10
        ret
puts:
        .char:
                lodsb
                cmp        al,        0
                jz        .done
                call        putchar
                jmp        .char
        .done:
                ret
[section .data]
msg                             db        "hello, world", 0
times 510 - ($ - $$)            db        0
                                dw        0xaa55

[Albatross]

Wikipedists wrote:

A scripting language or script language is a programming language that supports the writing of scripts, programs written for a software environment that automate the execution of tasks which could alternatively be executed one by one by a human operator.

Have ye anything to say to this, chrisname?

-Albatross

[chrisname]

Something like,

[bits    16]
[section .text]
[org     0x7c00]
_start:
        mov        bx,        [tasks]
        .do_task:
                call       [bx]
                or         ah,        ah
                jz        .error
                inc        bx
                dec        cx
                or         cx,        cx
                jz         .done
                jmp        .do_task
        .error:
                mov        si,        msg
                call       putstr
                ; FALL THROUGH
        .done:
                ; FALL THROUGH
hang:
        cli
        hlt
        jmp        hang
putchar:
        mov        ah,        0x0e
        int        0x10
        ret
puts:
        .char:
                lodsb
                cmp        al,        0
                jz        .done
                call        putchar
                jmp        .char
        .done:
                ret
task0:
        mov        ah,        0
        ret
task1:
        mov        ah,        1
        ret
[section .data]
msg                             db        "Error: Task failed.", 13, 10, 0
tasks                           dw        task0, task1 ; etc.
times 510 - ($ - $$)            db        0
                                dw        0xaa55

[BHX]

I learned a little assembly (using Emu8086) but I don't know where to find good tutorials for learning again. Been told learning x86 is useless now though. :/

[Duthomhas]

Assembly language is most decidedly not a scripting language, people.

[chrisname]

I know, I was just trolling.