Re: [OpenOCD-devel] Scripting languages

[Attila K. <at...@ki...>]

On Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:46:56 +0000
Spencer Oliver <sp...@sp...> wrote:

> In my original statement i was referring to the fact i am not familiar
> with integrating TCL-C. I can work my around tcl enough for OpenOCD
> usage.
> 
> The other argument is how many people understand lua - probably the same as tcl.
> I do not have strong opinions for either jim or lua - the community
> will have to decide.

I had to learn tcl 2-3 years ago, but only a cursory look at lua.
>From the language point of view, i do not like tcl at all. It's
clumsy and lacks the "syntactic sugar" features that make programming
easier. Lua looks a lot better in that regard, but it is also a more
complex programming language. But i guess it can be learned quickly
enough. For the scripts i use, i don't think i've ever used any
control flow. Beside a few subroutines, everything are just calling
commands in purly imperative "do this; do that;" style.

Now, for OpenOCD, i wouldnt recomend to switch the scripting language
unless there is a show stopper in tcl that cannot be solved otherwise.
Think about all those people who use OpenOCD, most of them have, if at
all, just read the sections of the manual that they need to get their
script running. They don't have any understanding of how OpenOCD really
works and what those commands do. They just work. If you switch languages
you'd have to provide them a script that converts their tcl scripts
into the new language, correctly, in 100% of all cases. Everything else
will just cause a lot of users to get angry.. and rightly so.
And probably a few who'd try to switch to something else.


				Attila Kinali

-- 
The trouble with you, Shev, is you don't say anything until you've saved
up a whole truckload of damned heavy brick arguments and then you dump
them all out and never look at the bleeding body mangled beneath the heap
		-- Tirin, The Dispossessed, U. Le Guin