Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

[email protected] (Richard Wolff) · Wed, 5 Feb 1997 14:41:02 -0700

Jeff Hill wrote:

> Sorry to go ahead with a perl prototype prior to the end 
> of the discussion. We must move quickly because Kay's last 
> day here is Feb 21 (after which he is returning to Germany) 
> - and he is the only one of us that really knows perl at 
> this point. Also, if this change makes it into 3.13 then 
> the NT port will be much easier to install, and we are very 
> close to making an official release of 3.13.
...
> Can anyone else comment on there preference/tolerance/revulsion
> of/for python before Richard gets started?

With that time scale, the fact that we here are still mired in oldish 3.12
releases, and more importantly, the fact that I have no way to verify
NT operation in the next month or so, if you've got something that
works, you should use it.

> I think that it is safe to say that the advantages of object 
> oriented programming are most relevant to large projects with
> many lines of code. Do you see a practical advantage of python 
> over perl considering that most of the projects written in 
> scripting languages are likely to be smaller in scope?

I do, but it's not related to the large/small distinction.  I'd like to
have a scripting language that's easy to learn and use for EPICS
systems users who aren't much into programming.  For instance,
telescope operators at an observatory.  I think that Perl's syntax and
readability presents more difficulties than Python's, and that's enough
to sway me.

I had hoped that, if scripting becomes important to EPICS in more than
one area, we might settle on one language.  But if it's to be perl for
installation/administration leaving the question of perl or something
else for dm (and other areas) for later, that's ok.

As for the large/small question, it's true that most of the EPICS
scripting tasks seem like they should be small ones.  But use of
scripts often grows without seeming bound, and then the script sizes do
as well; as one's aspirations increase, it's helpful if the language
scales cleanly with them.

Richard

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System