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10 Forces Guiding the Future of Scripting

snydeq writes "InfoWorld examines the platforms and passions underlying today's popular dynamic languages, and though JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Groovy, and other scripting tools are fast achieving the critical mass necessary to flourish into the future, 10 forces in particular appear to be driving the evolution of this development domain. From the cooption of successful ideas across languages, to the infusion of application development into applications that are fast evolving beyond their traditional purpose, to the rise of frameworks, the cloud, and amateur code enablers, each will have a profound effect on the future of today's dynamic development tools."

9 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Clueless. by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Larry Wall nabbed Python's object system when he created Perl...

    Erm, WTF? Perl was released in 1987; Python was 1991.

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    1. Re:Clueless. by ShadowRangerRIT · · Score: 4, Informative

      I assume they mean some flavor of Perl 5, since the Perl didn't have objects prior to Perl 5. And Perl 5 released several years after Python.

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    2. Re:Clueless. by RDW · · Score: 4, Informative

      'I assume they mean some flavor of Perl 5, since the Perl didn't have objects prior to Perl 5. And Perl 5 released several years after Python.'

      Indeed. According to Larry:

      'After Tcl came Python, which in Guido's mind was inspired positively by ABC, but in the Python community's mind was inspired negatively by Perl. I'm not terribly qualified to talk about Python however. I don't really know much about Python. I only stole its object system for Perl 5. I have since repented.'

  2. Re:this guy didn't do any research by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    From Larry Wall's 2007 State of the Onion:

    I'm not terribly qualified to talk about Python however. I don't really know much about Python. I only stole its object system for Perl 5. I have since repented.

  3. Re:10 forces? by fm6 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It was a perfectly good joke, until you came and spoiled it!

  4. Re:Fast javascript by compro01 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The safari javascript engine is called SquirrelFish (And there's also SquirrelFish Extreme, which compiles javascript into machine code, with predictable speed increases.) and it is open-source as it's part of webkit.

    http://webkit.org/

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  5. Re:Computer languages evolve like natural language by turbidostato · · Score: 4, Informative

    "It wasn't until the Europeans discovered Sanskrit in the 18th century until European languages had any formal grammar."

    Well, sure... It's only that the first printed greek grammar is from 1453; the first modern grammar, the Spanish one from Nebrija, dates from 1492; the first Italian one, that of Trissino, is from 1529, the Portuguesse one from Fernando de Oliveira is from 1536 and the French one from Louis Meigret was published on 1550.

  6. Re:Fast javascript by destiney · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ruby on Rails' RJS templates is exactly that. You write Ruby that is translated into Javascript calls. I've written a number of Javascript-driven Ruby on Rails apps without ever having written a single line of actual Javascript. You get a "page" object which represents the DOM, simple as can be.

    http://www.google.com/search?q=rjs+templates

  7. Re:the inevitability of an uber-scripting language by sulfur · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think I've seen it somewhere.