Just a poll to users/abusers/developers within the unRAID environment.

What is your favorite scripting language?

 

I'm just curious.

FWIW, I found a cool C compiler called TinyCC tcc for short, that lets you use it as an interpreter for scripting.

Of course C is more complex, It just got me thinking about it.

As good as  sh/awk/sed is, I've always found it can be written better and more efficient in perl.

Then there are people in love with php and python (a language I refused to learn, but am starting to think I have to anyway).

 

Thoughts.

Perl all the way but im no coder. Always found Perl easier to code, leaner, better documented with useful examples and tonnes of useful scripts already done available via google in a few searches.

Perl all the way but im no coder.

 

Write once, read never again!

 

I don't usually have to write scripts all that often, but I'm a fan of Python.  My only complaint (and everybody else who hates it) is the whole white space thing ... 

My only complaint (and everybody else who hates it) is the whole white space thing ...

 

I suppose with the right editor, alignment becomes automatic.

perl.

 

Even if you don't know what you're doing, perl can usually figure it out.

Here are some of my experiences and opinions:

 

 

KornShell – I used it for day to day stuff mainly maintenance some automation helps to know awk and sed

 

Perl – big step up from any shell, extremely rich in additional modules, I think one of the best tools for batch/command line scripting on UNIX/Linux/Windows platform.

 

Python – my current tool with wxPython framework for GUI, I think in plain Python learning curve is little stepper then Perl but runs on anything cell phones, ipods, palm, PC’s etc.

I think better then Perl for GUI application. Very versatile.

 

Ruby – never used it heard a lot supposedly very good but I think more appropriate for web apps

 

AutoIt – really good scripting tool for windows only supports some GUI

 

Hi WeeboTech,

 

I do some C#, but you're right... C is probably overkill and intimidating to many.

 

I just wanted to add a second vote for AutoIt (that Jarek recommended)...

 

and add an old standby with a pretty united user group:  ColdFusion

 

Thanks,

 

Russell

Perl is OK for text processing... but it's slow, and it's dying... it sucks for CGI.

 

PHP is much preferable for CGI and mixing HTML with script.

 

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/paperinfo/tpci/Perl.html

Python has my vote. It has a good clean syntax, lots of standard libraries and is cross platform.

 

Regards,

 

Stephen

Perl is OK for text processing... but it's slow, and it's dying... it sucks for CGI.

 

Actually once perl has been read in, compiled into it's own p-code, it runs as fast as C.

We converted a whole boatload of programs from COBOL to Perl, then later on to C only to find that the C version did not run any faster then perl version.  I'm talking basic data processing here. not extreme mathematics.

 

As far as CGI, It's not that perl sucks so bad for it, It's the whole  webserver, fork/exec/load packages/precompile that kills it.

This limits how much a webserver can support because of the whole cycle.

We use FASTCGI for many online products with satisfactory results.

 

In comparison, for repetitive loop tasks PHP can take longer to run then perl.

Where PHP shines in webservers is the integration with the webserver and it's feature rich language.

 

Now JAVA, thats a slow language.  We had to upgrade CPU's because the industry is moving in that direction and it required more horsepower.

Actually once perl has been read in, compiled into it's own p-code, it runs as fast as C.

 

But 99.9% of the time, you don't get any benefit from that.  You run it once and are done.... and perl is painfully slow in that regard.  Not as horrible as java, but still slow. The fact that so many kludges are out there to try to improve perl's performance, like mod_perl, illuminates the problem.  And some of them, like mod_perl, can break your source so you end up code bracketing.

 

Php doesn't need it.  It's integration with html in both forking and fastcgi servers is much better than perl's.  As you note, php "shines in webservers is the integration with the webserver and it's feature rich language."

 

There are 2 types of looping constructs in php that didn't optimize well in 4.x, but they are vastly improved in 5.x.

 

The whole question in the OP is flawed however.  Any good programmer will use the right tool for the job, and the OP didn't spec enough criteria.  There are some situations where I would chose perl.... but not very many.  If the only tool in yout toolbox is a hammer, everything will look like a nail.