ANN: A new scripting language Tao 0.9.0 beta released!

[Fu Limin]

Yes I also think text processing is a basic and indispensable feature
of a scripting language, but that's not exactly the thing I mean when
I say Tao can do powerful text processing. What I mean is Tao has
direct syntax support for text processing functionalities such as
regular
expression as Perl etc, I note that many scripting languages don't
have such feature, though they have external modules to load and
do the work, but I think it's more convenient to support them at
syntax level.

For numeric array operations, now mainly the fundamental operation
are supported, the complex ones will be provide as external modules.
I think those supported operation are enough fast, then use external
modules
to do the complex computations, it will be even faster.

Now it can only be extended by C++, it's because Tao is developed
by C++, and I found it's more convenient to support the extension by
C++.

For the last question, I will only answer shortly. The reason why I
started to develop this new language, it's because I am working in
bioinformatics field in which currently Java (for web applications) ,
Perl(for text processing and database) and R(comptuation) are
currently most used. But they quite difficult for many people in this
field. So I realized it's necessary to have language with simpler
syntax,
powerful text processing (as Perl) and numerical computational ability
(as Matlab), then the support for web and database. I didn't aware if
there is such a language exists(of course, many language have modules
to do such works, but at least for text processing and numerical
computation
I want one to have native supports). I think I have made it enough
clear,
I am not going to answer similar questions.

 

[Josef 'Jupp' SCHUGT]

I suspect that, having created my own programming language, I would
have a deeper appreciation for the inner workings and design
decisions of other programming languages. I might even be better at
improving existing ones.

I do not criticize(sp?) the invention of a new programming language.
Ii simply think that it is very inefficient to design an altogether
new language instead of starting with an existing one and then
modifying those features that do not fit the needs. Imagine how
insecure streets were if every car designer would not only design
chassis and the like but also wheels - modern wheels are very
elaborate hightech that incorporate a hundred years of trial and
error.

Josef 'Jupp' Schugt.

 

[Lyndon Samson]

I do not criticize(sp?) the invention of a new programming language.
Ii simply think that it is very inefficient to design an altogether
new language instead of starting with an existing one and then
modifying those features that do not fit the needs. Imagine how
insecure streets were if every car designer would not only design
chassis and the like but also wheels - modern wheels are very
elaborate hightech that incorporate a hundred years of trial and
error.

Lucky Matz didn't think like that

 

[Josef 'Jupp' SCHUGT]

The reason why I started to develop this new language, it's because
I am working in bioinformatics field in which currently Java (for
web applications) , Perl(for text processing and database) and
R(comptuation) are currently most used. But they quite difficult for
many people in this field. So I realized it's necessary to have
language with simpler syntax, powerful text processing (as Perl) and
numerical computational ability (as Matlab), then the support for
web and database. I didn't aware if there is such a language
exists(of course, many language have modules to do such works, but
at least for text processing and numerical computation I want one to
have native supports). I think I have made it enough clear,

Yes, I think so. Tao is meant to be a bioinformatics swiss army knife
(or cybertool). It is meant to replace a complete toolbox (Java, Perl,
and R), have a handy (simple syntax) and pocket size (no extra
libraries needed for the intended application) form.

In my opinion you gave the best answer to the question 'why did you
create that?' that one can imagine: 'I felt the need for it, nothing
similar did exist so far or the tools that were similar had severe
drawbacks'. Usually that is the reason for me to write programs as
well.

I think it is always a good idea not only to say *what* one does but
also *why*. Your explanation conviced me that it makes sense to have a
close look at Tao.

Josef 'Jupp' Schugt

 

[Fu Limin]

Yes, I forgot to mention their drawbacks. Now I
will speak about this.

For Perl, its complicated syntax is well known, it sometimes
becomes annoying. Two students in my lab studied
some weeks Perl, when they come to solve real problems,
they still use Excel! There are two things in Perl I hate most,
the first it the using of $@ as variable prefix, the second is
its way of passing parameters to a function, they are quite
annoying, at least for me. There are also a number of other
thing I find difficult to use, you can imagine how difficult
they can be for people have little programming experience.

For R, if you have a look into it, you will find it has a very
strange syntax, some place the syntax is so strange that I
have no idea why they should be like that, for example,
if "x" is an array,
dim(x)<-(2,4)
will change the shape of "x" to 2 times 4.
Do you like this kind of syntax?
The worse thing about R is, it is very inefficient both in
time and memory.

About Java, I don't deny that Java is good, I just feel that
it's not as fast as C/C++, and not as convenient as scripting
languages. So it's for sure that it is not suitable for some works.

Now I think my answer is more complete.

 

[Tobias Luetke]

To be honest Tao look more like a students semester project.

Oh. like linux?

 

[James Britt]

Oh. like linux?

Does this language-that-is-not-Ruby have its own mailing list or
discussion board?





James

 

[Fu Limin]

Yes, there are mailing list and forums on sourceforge.net for
Tao language, but so far they are not active:
mailing list:
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/taoscript-lang
forums: http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=128184