post your favorite scripting language

[oNyx]

As I mentioned, bsh is actually quite fast (a LOT faster than that - typical for me is 5 to 10 times slower), but there's a bug which if you trigger it somewhere in your script it will result in a massive massive slowdown (somewhere around 100-500 times IIRC). So, I would guess you're hitting that bug regularly ?
[...]

Well, loops are very slow...

for(int k=0;x<50;x++)if(foo[k]==16)foo[k]=0;

That's already a big drag...

for(int k=0;k<50;k++)for(int y=0;y<50;y++)if(foo[k][y]==16)foo[k][y]=0;

... and the framerate is down to... like 10fps with a 500mhz cpu. The same in java yields 500+fps and it's limited by the graphic card's fillrate.

It's horrible slow. bsh-2.0b2... maybe I should give b4 a try, but the changelog doesn't seem to mention any speed fixes. Ah well, I don't really mind it's slowness... execution speed isn't critical for prototyping

[blahblahblahh]

Well, loops are very slow...

The funny thing is, I've had loops that were *fast* - it seems to be only certain loops that are slow (what really bit us with survivor was that a loop "became" slow after some apparently trivial changes to the source ).

[Breakfast]

I have used PHP and found it really easy to get going with - I was able to build a fairly complex site with no learning curve (but I'm a very well seasoned asp and jsp developer so the concepts involved were very familiar) but it didn't force me to think in new ways.

I have used ActionScript a lot and it is better than Macromedia's other language, Lingo. Better in the same way that having your eyes surgically removed is better than having them poked out with a white hot fork....

The scripting languages I really like are the ones that really take advantage of the benefits of being a scripting language rather than just trying to replicate the functionality of a compiled one- Python and Ruby do this to some degree but it's Lisp I want to learn. I've started working my way through Paul Graham's book and it is a completely different way of thinking about programming- I can see it changing the way I look at writing code and I think when I understand Lisp I will be able to call myself a good programmer...

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[JasonB]

...jython is ugly, but only like 40 times slower....

Jython is ugly?  To embed?  Or you don't like the Python language?  Can't say I'm that impressed by the Jython source, but the more I've used Python, the more I like it.

[oNyx]

...jython is ugly, but only like 40 times slower....

Jython is ugly? To embed? Or you don't like the Python language? Can't say I'm that impressed by the Jython source, but the more I've used Python, the more I like it.

Na... embedding is easy. It's generally quite easy to embed a scripting language in java. I just personally don't like python's syntax very much.

[blahblahblahh]

http://www.artima.com/lejava/articles/beanshell.html

(new interview with beanshell's author that will probably be interesting to non-bsh-users)

PS: Significant whitespace is the spawn of the devil

[Jeff]

Java.

Seriously, I can dynamically load code at run-time.  Thats the only "scripting" type feature I find useful.
Java is plenty high level for me.  And Im convinced I could teach any "scripter" how to use what they
would need of Java to write game scripts as fast or faster then I could teach them any other language.

[darkprophet]

And how would you compile those .java files to bytecode when the program is being executed?

Janino is a good dynamic compiler, but oNyx says it fails under alot of code...

DP

[erikd]

I guess in most cases when scripting is needed, you can assume the scripts are made during development of the game and thus the script developer has the JDK installed and will use javac or even an IDE like eclipse.

[Jeff]

And how would you compile those .java files to bytecode when the program is being executed?

The same way servlets do in many  servlet containers.

I'd invoke the compielr thats in the jdk classes jar. (com.sun.tools.javac)

But Erik is correct that thsi is only needed for run time self-modifying thinsg like
builder MUDs.

For almost all other game uses scripts are written and compiled at game development time.