Re: [GD-General] Eiffel

[Brian H. <bri...@py...>]

At 11:20 PM 12/23/2001 -0500, Patrick M Doane wrote:
>Perhaps it would be interesting to come up with a few small programs or
>algorithms and see how they are implemented in various languages.  That
>might make learning these languages easier.  Any thoughts?

Actually, that's been done before (sort of) in the Great Computer Language 
Shootout.  A pretty nifty article that covers the performance aspects.

The problem is that small programs don't tell you that much.  You really 
need a large body of experience to give you the nitty gritty details about, 
say, the pros and cons of using Lisp vs. Lua vs. Ruby vs. Python for a game 
extension language.  Very few people have the depth of experience in all 
three to make a real valid comparison.

At a high level, there is C vs. C++ vs. Obj-C vs. Java vs. Eiffel, and once 
again a small program doesn't necessarily take into account.  Just reading 
about Eiffel taught me a lot (both about it and C++), and it wasn't until I 
started getting into the grittier details that some of the warts started to 
show up.  I still think it's a cool language, but for games specifically it 
may not be ideal (no real bit twiddling, no hex constants) without calling 
out to C/C++ constantly to do real work.  The environments and libraries 
also have their own set of issues.

And, of course, there are GUI tools, command line tools, text processors, 
etc. all of which can be implemented in many different appropriate languages.

That's why listening to informed opinions is fascinating to me, and 
unfortunately real good comparisons are hard to come by.  I'm still very 
impressed by Ian Joyner's relatively objective analysis of Java vs. C++ vs. 
Eiffel in "Objects Unencapsulated".  There's another book I just ordered 
that talks about OOP in terms of C++, Obj-C, Object Pascal and, I believe, 
SmallTalk.

Brian