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I am looking for a good scripting language to link to my program.
I am looking for 2 important attributes:
Scripting language should be hard linked into the executable (not requiring 3rd party
installations). This is important to me to simplify distribution.
Scripting should allow some run-time debugging option (When running a script inside my program I would like to easily run it inside a debugger while it is running in the context of my program)
Can python,lua or some other language supply me with this?
Both Lua and Python can provide the features you mention, so choosing one of them will depend on other criteria.
Lua is a lighter weight solution, it will have a much smaller disk footprint and likely a smaller memory overhead than Python too. For some uses it may be faster. Python has a much richer standard library, more mature third party libraries and a more expressive language.
Both have been embedded into major applications. Python can be found in Blender, OpenOffice and Civilization 4. Lua can be found in World of Warcraft and Adobe Lightroom. I'd recommend looking at a few tutorials for each and the facilities available to embed them in your application and just choose the one that fits your brain best.
Lua is designed for this:
static linking? check!
debugging? check!
Typically, Lua is the better choice for embedding into another project. Python is better as a standalone platform because the library support is so much broader. See Lua Versus Python for more details.
Personally, I use both very frequently depending on the job at hand. I always use Lua for embedding into C/C++ applications or scripting functionality that is imported from C/C++ shared libraries (i.e. a DLL). Python is always my first choice for standalone tasks that do not require low-level C/C++ code.
I'd put my two cents in for python. I don't know a lot of the details, but the computer graphics suite blender does a wonderful job of implementing python scripting.
As far as I can tell in blender 2.5 the interpreter is run from inside the executable,
import sys
sys.executable
shows /blender/blender.exe
and there is good debugging support, it even has a full interactive interpreter inside.
For more info check out: http://www.blender.org/
I really like Lua for embedding, but just as another alternative, JavaScript is easily embeddable in C, C++ (SpiderMonkey and V8) and Java (Rhino) programs.
In addition to Tcl, Lua, and Javascript (all already mentioned), Guile is another language designed explicitly for this.
I'll add Tcl to the mix. It's designed to be easily embedded into other programs.
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Anyone has any python simulator to recommend? am new to python programming. is there any program similar to codeblocks for C++ programming? Thanks
I think you might be slightly confused over terminology.
The term "simulator" doesn't really mean much in the context of programming. A simulator is something which pretends to be some other platform so you can test code on it. For example, I might use an Android simulator or a Gameboy simulator on my computer so I can test code without having to transfer it all the time.
You might mean "IDE" instead. Codeblocks is an example of an IDE. It stands for "Integrated Development System". It combines a "compiler" (something which turns what you write into executable code) and a specialized "text editor" (a program which lets you write text). It also includes a wide variety of convenient features to make programming in C++ more easy.
Note that you technically don't need an IDE to write code. An IDE combines a compiler (or an interpreter, in the case of Python) with a text editor, and a bunch of extra features for convenience, but this is by no means "necessary", strictly speaking. All you need in order to write code is a text editor of some sort, and a compiler or interpreter.
For example, I typically use either Notepad++ or Vim to write my Python code, and run it directly from the command line.
Regardless, Python has a wide variety of IDEs you can look at. Here is a comparison of the most popular ones.
However, you don't necessarily need a fancy IDE to program in Python! If you just directly install Python, it comes with a simple IDE called "IDLE" which you can use to write and run Python code. If you're new to Python, I recommend you use IDLE for now, until you get the hang of things.
tl;dr
To summarize:
A simulator is a program that pretends to be some other kind of computer/platform. Simulators are used to test code.
An IDE stands for "Integrated Development System" and is used to write and run code.
It combines a compiler or interpreter with a text editor.
There are many IDES for Python. Here is a list.
However, I recommend you use IDLE, which is included by default when you install Python.
Codeblocks does have a plugin for Python: http://wiki.codeblocks.org/index.php?title=Python_plugin . Though, I am not sure, how popular that is!
There was a similar discussion on SO: What IDE to use for Python?
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I want to learn python so I downloaded it from the python site and I saw 4 other kinds of pythons appear:
Python (normal)
IronPython
Jython
PyPy
Stackless Python
I can really find what the differents are between these.
Also which one is the best to start with.
Updated to include corrections from kind people in the comments section:
Of the python implementations you mention, the original and most commonly used is CPython (python on your list - which is an interpreter for python implemented in C and running as a native application) and is available for pretty much every platform under the sun. The other variants are:
IronPython: runs on the .Net common runtime (interfaces more cleanly with other .Net apps)
Jython: runs on the JVM (interfaces more cleanly with Java and other JVM apps)
PyPy: A Python interpreter which includes a just-in-time compiler which can significantly increase program execution performance. The interpreter and JIT are implemented in RPython (rather than C), a restricted subset of Python which is amenable to static analysis and type inference.
Stackless Python: An implementation of a python interpreter which doesn't rely on recursion on the native C runtime stack, and therefore allows a load of other interesting programming constructs and techniques (including lightweight threads) not available in CPython.
There are a large variety of libraries for Python (one of the major advantages of the language), the majority developed for CPython. For a number of compatibility reasons, none of the variants above currently support as many as the main implementation. So for this reason, CPython is the best place to start, and then if your future requirements fit one of the other platforms - you'll be in a good place to learn the variations from a solid grounding in the basics.
Python. All the documentation you'll find for learning the language assumes this. Then if you find a need for one of the other implementations the documentation will assume you know Python and explain the differences.
Start with Python.
The alternatives are for special use cases that apply mostly when you are integrating Python with other languages, which is a very advanced usage of the language.
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Is there any interest in developing Rpython (Restricted Python) from the PyPy project as a general purpose programming language? Perhaps it could be a fork from the PyPy project. Does such a project exist? Since the programs are compiled, one could simply contribute modules written in Rpython, and it could compete with other python implementations including CPython and PyPy.
I can't speak for everyone else, but I personally am extremely interested in using RPython as a general-purpose language. To answer some other people's questions:
Why? Because Cython is a pain to figure out how to use. If you don't put in a lot of tricky type declarations just right, you don't get any speedup. With RPython, it will run fast or it won't run at all.
Using PyPy offers a good speedup, but currently not nearly as much as RPython.
RPython might be a good way to get super-fast, somewhat Pythonic code. Here's an example to help you get started. I'm not aware of any large projects to do this, unfortunately.
Yes, there is already a project to use the translation tool chain of PyPy to create standalone executables and libraries using RPython. It is called RPythonic.
A general purpose RPython would not be a competitor for CPython and PyPy. It wouldn't even be a competitor for things like Cython.
Why? Because RPython is not Python!! RPython is merely a language which shares some syntax with Python; enough that a Python interpreter can execute RPython code, but you cannot take Python code and compile it as RPython.
The restrictions on Python that are added to enable RPython to be statically typed and compiled (indeed, to have static type inference) are so severe that they completely change the language. If you want to write an RPython program, you have to decide to do so up front and write it in RPython. You can't write a program in Python and then decide to compile it as RPython, and you can't even tweak a realistic Python program a bit to make it RPython. Normal Python code is nothing like normal RPython code; writing RPython is more similar to writing Java or C#.
So if you want to write general programs in Python but you want them to go faster, RPython has very little to offer you. That's the niche PyPy's Python interpreter is trying to fill.
If you want to write general programs in a lower level compiled language because you need your program to run faster than Python, then there are existing very mature languages and libraries for that, like Java or C#.
The reason to code in RPython would be to do something that is particularly made better by RPython. Like writing interpreters to which you can add garbage collectors and JIT compilers without having to write them by hand! Here RPython shines, and yes I would be very interested in a more polished and usable RPython interpreter-writing environment. But as a general purpose programming language for writing programs that don't particularly benefit from RPython's specialities, it would simply be a monstrous amount of work to get it to the point where it could compete with existing languages that already fill that role better. It barely even has a standard library now (because almost none of Python's extensive standard library is usable in RPython), for example.
From the looks of it, the restrictions are quite severe and on the whole it's a lot less to program in, I imagine. That's necessary for implementing PyPy, but generally if you want fast compiled code that can interact with Python, you'd use Cython (which is targeted at CPython extensions and supports pretty much all of Python seamlessly) or write code in one of the more common languages that can do this. And if you just want fast, compiled code... well, RPython may be more pleasant than e.g. C, but still, I don't see a significant advantage here (at least none that would warrant the effort to create a usable, stable language).
Why would I want to write directly in RPython?
It seems so much simpler to Python code and run PyPy.
Why would I want to write C code?
It seems so much simpler to write Python and have PyPy be implemented in C
Why would I want to write assembler code?
It seems so much simpler to write Python and have PyPy implemented in C and C implemented in Assembler.
I guess it really is turtles all the way down.
Why would I want to stop using the most convenient language and switch to a less convenient language?
What's the value in giving up a nice language?
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A specific example: becoming familiar with django's project source code (core, contrib, utils, etc.). Example of a useful tool: ctags - it allows you to "jump" to the file+location where a function/method is defined. Wondering about other tools that developers use (example: is there a tool that given a function x(), lists the functions that call x() and that are called by x()?). Thanks.
Edit: added an answer with an aggregate of tools mentioned so far in other answers
The following is an aggregate of tools mentioned in other answers...
cscope
http://cscope.sourceforge.net/
wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cscope
cscope is a console mode or text-based graphical interface ... It is often used on very large projects to find source code, functions, declarations, definitions and regular expressions given a text string.
pycscope
http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pycscope/
generates a cscope index of Python source trees
ctags and exuberant ctags
http://ctags.sourceforge.net/
http://ctags.sourceforge.net/ctags.html
wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctags
Ctags is a program that generates an index (or tag) file of names found in source and header files of various programming languages. Depending on the language, functions, variables, class members, macros and so on may be indexed. These tags allow definitions to be quickly and easily located by a text editor or other utility.
Eclipse:
http://www.eclipse.org/
wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_%28software%29
Eclipse is a multi-language software development platform comprising an IDE and a plug-in system to extend it. It is written primarily in Java and can be used to develop applications in Java and, by means of the various plug-ins, in other languages as well, including C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP, and others.
PyDev
http://pydev.sourceforge.net/
"Pydev is a plugin that enables users to use Eclipse for Python and Jython development -- making Eclipse a first class Python IDE"
Komodo Edit
http://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/
wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActiveState_Komodo
Komodo Edit is a free text editor for dynamic programming languages introduced in January 2007. With the release of version 4.3, Komodo Edit is built on top of the Open Komodo project.
It was developed for programmers who need a multi-language editor with broad functionality, but not the features of an IDE, like debugging, DOM viewer, interactive shells, and source code control integration.
Prashanth's call graph (visualization) tool
http://blog.prashanthellina.com/2007/11/14/generating-call-graphs-for-understanding-and-refactoring-python-code/
Just thought I'd share a link to an interesting small fun script I've found long time ago, that draws a graph of function calls. It works only for simple cases, so "as is" it's more fun than useful.
rope/ropemacs
http://rope.sourceforge.net/ropemacs.html
Ropemacs is a plugin for performing python refactorings in emacs. It uses rope library and pymacs.
http://www.enigmacurry.com/2008/05/09/emacs-as-a-powerful-python-ide/
Wing IDE
http://www.wingware.com/
Wing IDE has goto-definition, find uses, a source browser, refactoring, and other code intelligence features that should help. Another good way to understand unfamiliar Python code is to set a breakpoint, run to it in the debugger, and then go up and down the stack. In Wing Professional you can also use the Debug Probe to interact with and try out things in the debug runtime state (it's a Python shell that runs in the context of the current debug stack frame).
You can maybe try cscope! Wikipedia says that
cscope is often used to search content within C or C++ files, but it can be used to search for content in other languages such as Java, Python, PHP and Perl.[citation needed]
And you can also dig in this project.
Many (or even most, I should say) IDE's help you in this by enabling you do go to variable and function definitions, often by just Ctrl+click, or showing you class overviews where you can see all methods and attributes a class has including those inherited, and letting you go to their definition, etc, etc, etc. I can't recommend such a tool highly enough, it's very time-saving for development.
I personally use WingIDE, which is excellent and has all these features, but you should also check out KomodoEdit and Eclipse+PyDev. There maybe more that I don't know of, and it's fully possible that vim and emacs have some sort of plugins for this.
I think Komodo Edit and PyDev allows you to jump to python function defs.
is there a tool that given a function x(), lists the functions that call x() and that are called by x()?
Just thought I'd share a link to an interesting small fun script I've found long time ago, that draws a graph of function calls. It works only for simple cases, so "as is" it's more fun than useful.
For normal Python development personally I use GNU Emacs with rope/ropemacs (found a video showing the features) and sometimes Eclipse with PyDev.
This is subjective so I think it should probably be a community wiki. That said, the best thing you can probably do to make browsing large projects is to be familiar with hotkeys provided in your favourite IDE. Using the keyboard to browse through large source code is much easier than manually scrolling through text, highlighting text and fumbling through an IDE with a mouse.
Document it as you go. Leave trails, improve the structure, and keep notes. By the time you've found you way around the enter codebase, you'll have a good map.
I like Eclipse and the PyDev plugin. This combination has been very useful to me.
You should notice that cscope targets only the UNIX, Linux OSs.
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Has anyone ever heard of a UNIX shell written in a reasonable language, like Python?
Eshell is a Bash-like shell in Emacs Lisp.
IPython can be used as a system shell, though the syntax is a bit weird (supporting all of Python plus basic sh constructs).
fish has a core written in C, but much of its functionality is implemented in itself. Unlike many rare shells, it can be used as your login shell.
Hotwire deserves another mention. Its basic design appears to be "PowerShell in Python," but it also does some clever things with UI. The last release was in 2008.
Zoidberg is written in Perl and uses Perl syntax. A nice-looking project, shame it seems to have stalled.
Scsh would be a pain to use as a login shell (an example command from the docs: (run/strings (find "." -name *.c -print))), but it looks like a good "Perl in Scheme."
iPython (Python) and Rush (Ruby) are shells that are designed for more advanced languages. There's also Hotwire, which is sort of a weird integrated shell/terminal emulator.
From all appearances, Python IS a shell. It runs with #! and it can run interactively. Between the os and shutil packages you have all of the features of standard Unix shells.
Since you can do anything in Python with simple, powerful scripts, you don't really need to spend any time messing with the other shells.
Well, there's emacs, which is arguably a shell written in lisp :)
Seriously though, are you looking for a reimplementation of an existing shell design in a different language such as Python? Or are you looking for a new implementation of a shell language that looks similar to your language of choice?
There is xon now:
http://xon.sh/
http://xon.sh/tutorial.html#running-commands
PyCon video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaje5I22kgE
Tclsh is pretty nice (assuming you like Tcl, of course).
Try rash. It's a shell language written in Racket. It has a nice interactive-friendly syntax. You can embed Rash inside any normal Racket file as well as embedding normal Racket inside Rash. It's extensible and you can define new pipeline operators. It's still alpha quality at the moment, but it's pretty cool. Full disclosure: I wrote it.