I saw a similar comparison that included many other languages (even Java) and Lua was usually a good performer in the benchmarks, often (but not always) quicker than Python in the various tests. I've done simple C++ integration with Lua and it was fairly simple. I've heard that its a bit simpler than Python (which I haven't used) although there's lots of Python support code out there to make it a non-issue.

I'd say Python and Lua are your finalists. Python has a wider user base, more code support and more books written about it. Lua is smaller, slightly quicker for most applications, and may be more extensible. I think both support cooperative multithreading, although with some differences. Which direction you go depends on what is most important to you.

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[edited by - BS-er on June 19, 2003 11:00:26 PM]

If you like to stay within realms of c++ or c then there are c/c++ scripting lang. out there. I think this would be easier rather than having to learn another lang. But then again, I read that some common scripting lang. offer better options than c++ so it''s worth to check them out and compare features based on your needs. You might even create you own scripting lang. which I would think would be plenty flexible for someone wanting control.

Python is much more versitile than Ruby/LUA/Perl/etc... It's the best of the scripting langs, it can be embedded, used for scripts for admins on Linux/Windows, it can be implemented into webpages, you can create software with the Tk kit, you can program in OpenGL with it with the PyGame libs, it's also a very readable language (don't complain about the indentation, it makes it better anyway), it's easy to learn, and it's mighty powerful and can well....be used for anything. Some people say Python is slow, well it's not as slow as some languages, trust me, and it's multi platform, so why complain? The thing is, in the next release of Python (2.3, should be out this summer/early fall), there will be a 10% increase of speed in the language, which is good.

Google uses Python, NASA uses Python, a lot of people use Python and it's gaining popularity.

If you want to learn a language with the power of C++, but much more readable, and fun to use (and actually more versitile than C++), go for Python, the king of scripting and most other things.

If rapid dev'ing is a concern, don't fret, get Python, it's easy to dev with thus fast dev'ing, and it's faster than VB/VBscript the last time I checked.

Peace.

"Few creatures of the night have captured our imagination like vampires..." Godsmack
(c) 2003 DigiCode - My solo company in progress.

[edited by - Drevay on June 25, 2003 4:55:08 PM]