Re: Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, C, C++, Lua, tcl, javascript and Java comparison

["NU-g.lister" <g.lister@...>]

> 
> LuaJIT benchmarked REALLY well, even against many compiled languages. It 
> was really the best dynamic language, hands down, and even gave Java a 
> run for its money. It even beat C in one benchmark, IIRC, though I think 
> it was the Lua pattern matcher (written in C) that gave it the edge over 
> the C code written for that test. That combined with (generally) small 
> code size and (generally) low memory usage meant that it really stood
> out.
> 
> The complaint was that people, for better or worse, use the benchmark 
> game (which ranks very high in Google searches for many language 
> benchmarks) to choose between languages, and by removing it didn't show 
> the full potential of Lua any more. If you've seen the LuaJIT 
> performance data on luajit.org, then you know that LuaJIT exists and 
> that it's really fast. But to someone unfamiliar with Lua, it doesn't 
> stand out as over-the-top awesome any more.
> 
> Tim

I saw the chart posted by someone else, thanks, it is impressive. You know I learned about Lua by chance and I learned it is used for games and thought to myself: "... Hold on it must be fast then ..." Then I started digging and found the rest of the info etc. Sure people get swayed by marketing that's why it exists :) but nothing stays hidden forever especially if one wants to dig it out. On the other hand I find that when something is very popular lots of different groups decend and generally mess it up. When I looked up Lua it was because it was embedable and by golly having read some of the C examples in the latest book it is pretty cool (thanks Roberto) one can do lots of interesting stuff. On the other side you have the hordes of people coming and saying where is the native library for XML, SOAP etc. etc. That was my second thought ;) too but heck why would you want that when you can use C and Lua a great combination.

My point is Lua has a niche and it is great in that niche. Can you do more... sure..., i know about the site with packages etc., I had a huge Access db once :) ... And it worked for a while until...

I am not worried about Lua not being the most popular language that was me many years ago now I only care about what I need. I use many languages I have to but I appreciate things that are small and nice compexity kills and programming is art albeit for some quite abstract :). I did read the book about Unix programming late but heck those are things people learned years ago ... and most are still valid. I think a language should be close to the machine so that people are not lost in abstractions and peeling onions i mean the whole IT lingo is funny for outsider things are reinvented all the time just 'cause I spend time peeling things everyday. It is easy to see when someone is learning poing around or blatantly just not caring..

Sorry I went on a tangent there... All I wanted to say is if Lua was popular as Java say it would be still what it is today...?? Look at Java and tell me that with a straight face (kidding) heck on of the talks on Java One is Object Oriented programming and Lambda what is next... Functional + OO ooh wait there is Scala... I mean where does it stop sure an elephant can fly with a rocket but sure as heck won't corner as a perigrine falcon ;)

Thanks for the info everyone
best,
george