Re: [Oopic-compiler-devel] Hello from the new guy

[Neil D. <nd...@us...>]

Brian wrote:
> --I noticed the consensus is to use C for this project.  While I'm
> comfortable with that, won't this become something of a maintenance
> nightmare to support several different platforms?   Has any
> consideration been given to writing some or all of this project in a
> truly portable language such as Python?

I've been playing with Python a bit over the last week or so, and I love
it!!  It seems very easy to get into, and quick to develop with.

Furthermore, it's really straightforward to use pieces of C code within a
Python program, and in fact some people apparently use Python for
prototyping, and then work through the various Python modules rewriting
them in C/C++ if and when they need extra speed (however Python is very
fast anyway).  Translated into our project, it means we could write in
Python, and in the unlikely scenario that we need to use C for something,
we could, without any problem.

Another nifty thing is that you can create "frozen binaries" which are
single executible files that contain the compiled Python byte-code, along
with a small Python virtual machine.  In other words, you can ship this
single executable, with nothing else, and it'll run on the chosen target
platform.  This will make life extremely easy for installing the OOPic
compiler on Windows machines, as we would not need an installer, and would
not have to worry about installing Python etc.  Ideal for OOPic users who
just want an easy life.

Another really nifty thing about Python is that you can run your code, with
no need to port, on Palm and PocketPC based PDAs, Ataris, Amigas, VMS
mainframes and Cray supercomputers!  Although I doubt there'll be many
OOPic users doing this, it's a pretty cool selling point that our compiler
would run on all of those platforms as well as the usual Windows/Mac/Linux.

In fact the Palm aspect is interesting, because of the SCP example in
Dennis' book.  In conjunction with what he writes, you could use a
Palm-based PDA as a development environment, editing/compiling code and
uploading it to the OOPic, entirely separated from a conventional computer!

So I think my current vote is swinging more over to the Python side now,
than the C side.... :-)   Anyone else got any further thoughts?

Still looking forward to Andy's thoughts on all this......

Neil
-- 
Neil Durant
<nd...@us...>