what language to write program in - Page 2

samael · 05-20-2004, 04:58 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by brady

Scheme??????

No Way.

Scheme RULES!!!!
I suppose there is no point getting all exotic when all i want is essentially a simple interface app.
C it is.

hijinks21 · 05-20-2004, 05:49 PM

if you are doing it in c++ then not using qt is crazy.. unless you want to build upon another widget set like gtk.. or heaven forbid waste half your life creating a usable widget set.. hopefully you don't say wxwindows.. oh please god no

samael · 05-20-2004, 06:01 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by hijinks21

if you are doing it in c++ then not using qt is crazy.. unless you want to build upon another widget set like gtk.. or heaven forbid waste half your life creating a usable widget set.. hopefully you don't say wxwindows.. oh please god no

Having never used wxwindows, i thought it looked quite good. Whats wrong with it? Is the goal of cross platform windowing made it a messy api?

hijinks21 · 05-21-2004, 08:18 AM

i haven't used it in a C++ enviroment.. just python and the API is almost the same.. and its nasty.

sumit_b · 05-21-2004, 02:30 PM

Does the original poster want to write a GUI application? If so, an object oriented language is desirable. C++ with Qt is my favorite as well. Trolltech people have done a great job with this GUI toolkit. Java is a possibility too, but will require X-windows (Qt can run without it as posted earlier).

On the other hand, if he wants to simply control an alphanumeric display, then any language will do. No special toolkit (like Qt) is required. Java and .Net have higher hardware requirements. You need the complete runtime software installed. For such applications, I generally go with plain C. C applications are small and fast. Multithreading isn't that hard in C if you already know the concept.

Mustang Mike · 06-05-2004, 10:23 AM

I'm going to be using an EPIA-5000 with a hard drive, so I'm considering using Python to control mpd. If the existing Python wrapper doesn't work out well (I tinkered briefly with it and it seemed like some mpd commands weren't available) then I might have Python command mpc to command mpd.

In any case, I'm going with Python because of decreased development/maintenance time. I know C/C++ as well (and like them a lot) but I wouldn't even consider going through the extra hassle - Python is a natural for this if you can deal with the added bloat you need on your hard drive, and I say that because there are feeatures in Python that make dealing with things such as playlists pretty easy (lists & dictionaries)- things that are always kind of a pain in the butt with C, maybe a little less so with C++. Of course the same arguments I'm using for Python could be applied to Perl- it would be equally a natural for this kind of stuff; I just personally prefer Python over Perl.

Obviously execution speed is not a high priority, so a slower and bloated (compared to C) language is the answer for me.

Of course, if I were running embedded Linux off a compact flash and no hard drive, my decision would change to using C++ to save space.