Re: [Aaron-devel] What language to use for aaron (short and long term)?

[Sean C. <sea...@it...>]

> Ok, quick question.  If the language for prototyping is Ruby, why did u
> get a bunch of Perl, PHP developers to develop this.  It makes NO sense at
> all to develop this in Ruby at all!!

	Because a programming language is just that, a programming
language and the only thing that's different is the syntax.  An object
is still an object, and a method is still just that, a method.  Hackers
know specific languages.  Developers/engineers can move from language to
language by reading the language spec and it doesn't matter because=20
they're familiar with basic engineering precepts.  That's why I grabbed=20
you guys.  Is it really that tough to pick up a new language?

	The point of a language that you prototype in is making sure
that the concept is valid and to minimize the developers having to work
around or massage the language that they're developing in while trying
to implement the test.  There's a reason most people don't just hack out
C: the language often gets in the way (alright, Linux is an exception). =20
Perl and threads: the language will trip over itself.  PHP, same dilly. =20
Ruby has this all built in and there aren't any porting issues.  What=20
works on my BSD box will work on solaris, Linux, and even Windows.  How=20
cool is that?

http://sean.chittenden.org/programming/ruby/programming_ruby/ospace.html

	Skip down to "Marshalling and Distributed Ruby."  Done, and easy. =20
Did you read down to the "Distributed Ruby" part?  If not, check it out. =
=20
Can you do that with other languages?  Yeah, it's called CORBA and it's
a tad ugly, esp in a prototype.  Want to know how you can do this from a
few different locations with a multi-mastering scheme?  Send out a lock
for an object, marshall, send the marshalled object, and then unlock the
object ID.  Do that in another language quickly.  ;~)

	Security?  Check out the following:

http://sean.chittenden.org/programming/ruby/programming_ruby/taint.html


	I didn't choose Ruby because it was something we already knew. =20
I chose it because it takes care of a lot of the problems that we'll
have in this application and it does away with most of the problems in
an elegant and efficient manor.  I don't want to have to worry about
debugging hacks and kludges that come from working with a language.  A
blessed hash or dorking with global name space problems isn't my cup of
tea, not for a prototype.

	Does that make sense?  -sc

--=20
Sean Chittenden