Re: [GD-General] Re: Scripting Systems

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

> would need is a way to tell static from dynamic objects. So some
> objects are instances of classes, and hence cannot have their
> layout modified in runtime. This would solve some of your typo
> problems.

Yes.

> But the real question is: do you really need that ability (dynamic
> modification of object layout) at all?

In my case, no.

> static correctness checks. Is the side-effect of being able to add
> a new member to any object really desirable?

For me, no.

> Note that I don't intend to criticise Lua; I quite like it. But
> perhaps it's not the right tool for the job? (Though it's probably
> the least wrong one... ;)

This is possible, but as you say, it's also possibly the least wrong 
one.  Any suggestions for a scripting language that is:

- fast
- allows static type checking but does not require it
- easy to embed
- well supported/documented (at least as well as Lua)

the language TOM, syntactically, is the closest to ideal, but it 
compiles to C and looks like the development is dead 
(http://www.gerbil.org/tom).  Another is IO (www.iolanguage.com) but 
it's very new and hasn't been nearly as battle tested as Lua.

It also might be possible to hack Lua so that assignments to 
undeclared variables generate compile time errors, but I'm not 
familiar enough with Lua innards to know if that would be easy or 
difficult.

Brian