Choosing the language for the job.

[Thomas M. Farrelly]

hi,

<sarcasm>
Thanks for not answering my last quetion. However many references made =
nice contribution to trashcan. TUNES must be like at the top of the =
scientific buerachracy. ConGratulations :)
</sarcasm>

<however>
I didn't reall expect an answere. It was more rethorical,  think about =
this for a second. I got one answere though - empty tape - nice one, but =
is it a quine? Try a TM program that starts with an empty tape, but =
where the automaton is not empty. That's more like the quines I've seen =
- they do not require input.
</however>


Why I really send this, is to get some view points on which language I =
should use to write a fast, portable interpreter. I think I have asked =
this question before. There has definantly been discussion on language =
here. Requirements are:

            - compiles
            - dynamic runtime linking / evaluate function / similar
            - portable
            - fast

The part about runtime linking doesn't need to be built in, but there =
should be some module for it somewhere. Also, it would be nice if there =
was a multi prossessor support module as well.

My obvious choice is C, but we all hate that. I wonder particularly =
wheter there are compiled dialects of lisp. One language C-- seems =
particularly interesting, as my program is an implementation of an =
abstract structure and thus do not need api's, but I have problems =
finding compilers for it. I do not need graphics, as I'll be using dhtml =
for that.

The interpreter will be like a cgi program. I have a working one, but it =
is written in javascript :D Sounds silly ha? Well, I was doing some =
userinterfaces in javascript, and damn that's a cool language. When =
looking at it, try to forget the "java" part of the name. It has little =
to do with java. You have first order most everything, and you can add =
new methods to existing objects like array and function. It's prototype =
based, and it has dynamic scoping. But there are nasty features as well. =
Nuff about that.

And, I want manual GC.


Thnks in advance.