Peter den Haan | peterdenhaan.com | quantum computing specialist, Objectivity Ltd
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep
Originally posted by Peter den Haan:
In my experience, embedded scripting is used broadly in two different waysTo add flexibility to an application or framework. The best known example is JavaScript embedded in web pages. Another good one is the use of elisp in the emacs editor. To solve a problem in a language that is much more expressive in the problem domain. My favourite example is the use of an embedded XSLT processor to effect XML transformations; another example would be to use an embedded Prolog interpreter to formulate business rules in a business application framework. The first type of embedded scripting can turn a good application into a great one; I'm sure the original authors of emacs had no idea what people would end up doing with it. The second type can easily improve productivity by an order of magnitude.
Does anyone have particular success stories to share? And where does Jython fit in this spectrum?
- Peter
[ April 09, 2002: Message edited by: Peter den Haan ]
SCJP, SCJD, SCEA 5 "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" Agatha Heterodyne (Girl Genius)
Peter den Haan | peterdenhaan.com | quantum computing specialist, Objectivity Ltd
SCJP, SCJD, SCEA 5 "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" Agatha Heterodyne (Girl Genius)
Well, not necessarily. You may "just" want to get the agility and programmability that an embedded scripting language can give you (like emacs' elisp or Office's VBA). This can greatly improve the effectiveness and versatility of your application. The language needs to be relatively lightweight and high level; Jython appears to fit both criteria.Originally posted by karthik Guru:
So according to you , you w'd'nt want to use (rather embed) a scripting language in your application unless it does somethign radically different in a radically different way.
In Prolog, you specify a set of constraints (knowledge) and rules and the interpreter uses these to work itself a way towards a solution (Experts please feel free to chip in; I'm getting out of my depth here). If the problem you're trying to solve involves rule inference, there's a chance that developing a solution in Prolog will be lots faster in both development and execution time.I think jython cannot achieve the same effect as what xslt does to our java application. [...] I have no idea of prolog.
It's the design that counts, not the 100% pure Java implementation -- many XSLT processors are implemented in Java, that doesn't make them any less expressive.I think the similarity in design + 100% pure java implementation probably prevents jython from helping you do things in an expressive manner??.
Peter den Haan | peterdenhaan.com | quantum computing specialist, Objectivity Ltd
Originally posted by Peter den Haan:
This highlights one property of such "order of magnitude more productivity" scripting languages: many of them represent a complete paradigm shift relative to a traditional programming language such as Java. XSLT is. Prolog is. On the other hand, Perl isn't.
Originally posted by Mapraputa Is:
If there was some kind of "XML" to design your own domain-specific language, with lex and parser available and ready to use, it could cause a wave of new-born domain-specific languages (for better or worse)
Consider Paul's rocket mass heater. |