Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Serious Suggestions

[Tony Stuckey <stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Feb 24, 1999 at 11:24:39PM +1100, Stephen Hodge wrote:
> With a full language we could extend it more easily to allow complex
> tasks to be scripted (eg. a client AI written entirely in the scripting
> language - I think this would be really cool). Extending a FreeCiv
> specific language originally designed for city build orders is likely to
> be more difficult. Of course the simple language is probably easier to
> implement. The other advantage with something like Guile is that it is
> widely known (and in Guile's case a GNU standard).

        For small values of widely.
        A domain-specific language can be made very easy to learn, yet
powerful.  Most general programming languages are not easy to learn,
regardless of power.
        TacOps doesn't even have a language -- just a bunch of checkboxes
in a dialog box, but it's got very useful scripting.

        Scope is important.  I don't think that writing an entire AI in the
scripting language itself is necessarily useful.
-- 
Anthony J. Stuckey                              stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"When I was young, the sky was filled with stars.
 I watched them burn out one by one."  -Warren Zevon