Dev:Programming Language Pros & Cons

From AMSN

Note: This page is not about what language is better. This is about what language is best suited for the planned aMSN2.

Contents 1 TCL 1.1 Pros 1.2 Cons 2 Python 2.1 Pros 2.2 Cons 3 Ruby 3.1 Pros 3.2 Cons 4 Interesting links and info 5 Removed 6 Joined

TCL

Pros

• No need for current aMSN developers to learn a new language
• Cross-platform

Cons

• Bindings are generally not available
• Old and nowadays unpopular language

Python

Pros

• Active development and large size dev community
• Bindings are available
• Object Oriented
• Cross-platform
• Can reuse existing Telepathy code (cohoba)

Cons

• Current aMSN developers can not benefit from their experience and therefore may initially write crappy code

Ruby

Pros

• Active development and medium size dev community
• Bindings are available
• Object Oriented
• Bridges to both Python and Tcl exist
• Cross-platform

Cons

• Current aMSN developers can not benefit from their experience and therefore may initially write crappy code
• Multiple ways to do the same thing (syntactically)

Interesting links and info

• Eric Raymond's first python experiences
• phd thesis showing Python is faster, smaller and less memory hungry than TCL
• Ruby compared to Python and Perl (it's somewhat biased, but contains a lot of useful info)

Removed

• The pro and con about Ruby being a hype because together they form are a neutral statement.
• "An advantage of using TCL/TK (cross platform, no compilation) is gone" because it applies not only to Tcl but also to other interpreted languages that they are 'cross-platform' and 'no compilation', and that advantage being gone depends only on bindings availability.
• Weird syntax from Python Con as it was never serious in the first place.
• "We might be able to reuse some aMSN1 code" from TCL pros as Harry points out we can probably not reuse anything in aMSN2

Joined

• 'Current amsn developer knowledge will be less useful' and 'If people learn a new language, the intial code will probably be crap'. These two are so much related that I thought is was better to join them into 'Current aMSN developers can not benefit from their experience and therefore may initially write crappy code'