Reply-To: "Kent Tessman" <kent@remove-to-reply.generalcoffee.com>
From: "Kent Tessman" <kent@remove-to-reply.generalcoffee.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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Subject: Re: [Dis]Advantages of IF languages
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"Sean T Barrett" <buzzard@TheWorld.com> wrote in message
news:GsB7wq.7E@world.std.com...

> It's only a small step from a 1-digit-action code to adding
> some primitive scripting capability stored *in the database*
> with the object. From there it's only a small step until all
> the code moves into the "database". (The LISPish languages
> were the exception above because they *already* allow a rather
> free intermixing of code and data.)
>
> If anyone has any specific anecdotes of this process actually
> occurring, I'd be curious to hear it.

As an example, Hugo actually started out, way back, as a simple database
format.  Then it became a complex database format.  Then, as Sean noted,
that small step was taken (followed by a hundred other small steps) to
incorporate scripting, which put it on the road to becoming its own
language.

The reality that seems to have been shown out repeatedly is that it's
ultimately easier to do the things that are most important to IF (at least
in the way that IF is currently written) in a custom programming framework.
And ultimately, like Mr. Barrett says, that framework becomes a specialized
programming language.

Then there's the win (as a game-writer, not as a system developer) of not
having to port the UI layer to target multiple platforms.  Oh, and there's
also my probably-unprovable-yet-sneaking suspicion that people familiar with
C++ and the like who would list consistency and clarity among those
languages' advantages overestimate just how steep the learning and
comprehension curve is for those who aren't quite as programmer-y by nature
or experience.

--Kent



