D and the world

[Sean Kelly]

Daniel Keep wrote:
> 
> Michael P wrote:
>> Is there really any benefits using scripted languages besides not having to compile? D is much faster than most scripted languages and it compiles fast and have a garbage collector. I myself find D easier and you get better performance!
>> "While the C++ parts of the engine are fast, UnrealScript is a relatively slow language to execute."
>> It's a sad thing when ppl underestimate the advantages of good performance. Bump mapping could be done with an Amiga (demo but still). And if you install Win98 on a new machine it will fly! 
> 
> I'm throwing my money in with Gregor on this, but I thought I'd share
> one of my experiences with Python.
> 
> I argued for, and eventually managed to bludgeon my other project
> members into using Python for our third year group project at uni.  I
> can't speak for the others, but I think that Python's dynamicism (;P)
> really made the thing easier to write.

One issue I have with many dynamic languages is that they don't require 
variables to be declared before they are used.  In my experience, this 
can turn a mistype into a bug that takes hours to find.  More recently, 
I've noticed that the lack of type information in dynamic languages can 
make it very difficult to figure out how to use a piece of code.  Is 
there an easy way to figure out what is returned from a class member 
function?  In deep inheritance trees, figuring this out through code 
inspection can take a while, and it isn't always feasible to try and 
figure it out using interactive calls (ipython).

That said, the flexibility of such languages is what makes them so 
powerful.  I'm just not convinced I'd actually want to use them for 
anything but relatively compact chunks of code.


Sean