[ale] Ale Inc.? (was RE: [ale] surviving sans work

[Joseph A Knapka]

>Mainly coding the interface and making it pretty and more functional.  Right
>now it's very kludgy (functional, but terse).  Once the interface is streamlined and >therefore: sellable I'll be able to get to the next level.  The problem I'm at now is >that I code in perl/GTK and some of my co-developers [sourceforge (project: dashpc)] >want to re-do it in Java.  Java is nice because it's cross-platform
>and all, but it's slow and my interface is more responsive (aka: easier to sell).  >We've been trying to negotiate something we all agree
>on, but each person has a different road they want to take the project.
> 
>Ho hum.... if I'd only learned C++ in high school and not Pascal my life would >probably be much better/simpler right now.
> 
>I do know C,C++.  However, I program in PHP and Perl at work; and I know +squat+ java. >I could probably pick up java easily, but I just don't know if my brain can handle
>another language...

And if it could, Java would be a bad choice, IMO (I say this with
several years of Java development experience). It's a horrible
language, well-marketed by Sun and hangers-on.

If you like the perl/GTK interface, and you're productive in it,
and it does everything you want, then IMO you should keep
using it (I say this as a guy who hates Perl above practically
every other language I've every worked with). Why go to the
trouble to rewrite stuff in Java when Perl is just as portable?
(don't know about the GTK...) Sounds like the folks at SF
may be arguing from a "my favorite tool is the savior of all
mankind" standpoint.
 
>...ugh.
> 
>Basically, I want someone to rewrite my code in C or C++ and I will give them a hefty
>percentage stake in my "company".  The company is not formally established yet,
>however, the project is going to be featured on TechTV's "Screen Savers" in about 3
>months (they're waaaaay booked out according to the booking manager).  I can't help
>but think that out of a few million viewers there might be one or two "healthy"
>investors lurking.

Sounds like fun, and I'd love a piece of that :-), but only do it
if you really see a benefit. IMO, going to C/C++ from a very-high-level
-language is almost guaranteed to be a big step *backwards* in terms of
development effort and maintainability. Your UI toolkit is already
implemented in C/C++, most likely, and the Perl code is just gluing
code and application logic, and the application logic can be pushed
down to the C level very easily using something like SWIG, if it's
a performance bottleneck. In my opinion, for custom software, the
scripting-language-gluing-carefully-chosen-for-performance-reasons-
bits-of-C/C++-code model is best in terms of productivity,
maintainability,
and overall project health.
 
-- 
"I should like to close this book by sticking out any part of my neck
 which is not yet exposed, and making a few predictions about how the
 problem of quantum gravity will in the end be solved."
 --- Physicist Lee Smolin, "Three Roads to Quantum Gravity"

---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.