RE: Writing games in interpreted languages

[Erik <br0ke@math.smsu.edu>]

On 27-Dec-1999 Christoph Reichenbach wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, 27 Dec 1999, Davis, Daniel wrote:
> 
>> Perl isn't a compiled language and therefore not suitable for gaming.
> 
> I disagree. The fact that Perl (or Python, Scheme, etc) code is 
> interpreted in software rather than being executed on an actual processor
> just means that this particular piece of code will need a few more
> processor cycles to be executed. On the other hand, it will give you all
> the advantages of sand-boxed development, like powerful in-game 
> debugging, increased stability, and portability (if done right).
> Of course, it's too slow for doing high-performance graphics "manually".
> But running the actual game logic in an interpreter makes a lot of sense
> and has been done in many historic games (All of Sierra's AGI and SCI
> games, LucasArts SCUMM games, Quake 1 and 3, and IIRC all Infocom
> adventures).
> 

quake1 used a compiled script, you had to have 'qcc' and it was a near-C
language... But interpreted languages are often fast enough to handle that
kinda activity :) I know that perl and scheme, once loaded up, are pretty fast.
perl is a jit language iirc. Plus perl and scheme (guile) are very easy to
imbed, and if you design the program well, you can easily rip out one scripting
format and drop another in.

> (Binary compatibility is another reason for interpreting code. But Binary
> compatibility is a kludge, and hardly worth mentioning).
> 

binary compatability is an important element of java, and was one of the
reasons why q1 kicked q2's ass :) If the game is going to run on multiple
os/arch, then the scripts/mods should have that portability, and if any kind of
binary material is presented, it should be portable... if someone is set on
compiled scripts, then they should concern themselves with binary
compatability. 

> llap,
>  Christoph
> 
> 
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        -Erik <erik@smluc.org> [http://math.smsu.edu/~br0ke]

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