survey

[Dave Zhu]

Hello All,

Is there any survey on scripting languages? I would
like to get information on several scripting languages
including Python, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, etc.

Thanks

Dave




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[George Sakkis]

Hello All,

Is there any survey on scripting languages? I would
like to get information on several scripting languages
including Python, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, etc.

Thanks

Dave

After a little googling, that's what I found:

http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/article/prechelt00empirical.html
http://www.sensi.org/~ak/impit/studies/report.pdf

George

 

[Alan Gauld]

Is there any survey on scripting languages? I would
like to get information on several scripting languages
including Python, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, etc.

There are several such comparisons on the web but most will
naturally reflect the authors personal preferences. The Python
web site has pointers to a couple and I'm sure that Perl , Tcl
and Ruby sites will have their own.

My own personal perspective is that I like Perl for one line
hacks and string processing, I like Tcl because I like the
underlying concepts and Tcl programs are often shorter than
others. I like Ruby mainly for a few of its nice features and I
like Python because I can read it when I'm finished!

Those are the things that influence me, not detailed lists of
features. I like all of the languages you mention and uise them
for different jobs. Vive la difference...

Oh yes, and don't forget to include Lisp/Scheme/Guile in
your considerations...

Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program website
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld

 

[Peter Hansen]

Hello All,

Is there any survey on scripting languages? I would
like to get information on several scripting languages
including Python, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, etc.

What kind of information? ...

 

[Cameron Laird]

What kind of information? ...

Precisely. There are whole books <URL:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578700108/002-9216984-6160028 >
on this subject; there are breezy sketches <URL:
http://www.itworld.com/AppDev/4061/swol-0202-regex/ >
you can read in a single setting; and 'most everything
between. Who wants to know? Is your real interest to
know what the job market for each language is, or the
syntax of arithmetic in each language, or which one has
the best Conferences, or ...?

<URL: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html >

 

[beliavsky]

Hello All,

Is there any survey on scripting languages? I would
like to get information on several scripting languages
including Python, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, etc.

The Language Shootout at http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/ has code
samples in many languages, both interpreted and compiled, including the
ones you mentioned. Don't trust the lines-of-code statistics, though --
the LOC measure is wrongly shown as zero for several codes, and comment
lines are counted, so that languages with programmers who use more
comments are penalized.

You can obtain the paper "Are Scripting Languages Any Good? A
Validation of Perl, Python, Rexx, and Tcl against C, C++, and Java." by
Prechelt at http://page.mi.fu-berlin.de/~prechelt/Biblio/ -- his answer
is "yes".

 

[igouy]

The Language Shootout at http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/ has code

samples in many languages, both interpreted and compiled, including the
ones you mentioned. Don't trust the lines-of-code statistics, though --
the LOC measure is wrongly shown as zero for several codes, and comment
lines are counted, so that languages with programmers who use more
comments are penalized.

afaik the LOC measure does not count comment lines - is there a
specific example?

Anyway, we continue to add new micro-benchmarks and deprecate old ones.

We really welcome program contributions for the new and old tests - so
send us some Python!

 

[D H]

What kind of information? ...

See the other responses to his question.

 

[beliavsky]

though
afaik the LOC measure does not count comment lines - is there a
specific example?

(this message is OT for c.l.py, sorry)

The "random Fortran Intel program" at
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/benchmark.php?test=random&lang=ifc&id=0&sort=fullcpu
is said to have 40 lines, but excluding blank lines and comment lines
(those that start with "!") I count 22.

The "ackermann Fortran Intel program" at
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/benchmark.php?test=ackermann&lang=ifc&id=0&sort=fullcpu
is wrongly said to have 0 lines.

There are other cases of these problems.

 

[Peter Hansen]

See the other responses to his question.

Why would I want to do that? Did somebody else manage
to read his mind and post the missing information?
Or are you just assuming that the others have correctly
guessed what he intended? (FWIW, I have been skimming
the other responses as the thread progresses, and
even so your comment still makes no sense to me.)

-Peter