> Unless you're already good at C++, just about any other
> language is going to be faster
> to program in.  Programmer time is more valuable than
> machine time these days for
> the majority of applications--and for small- to
> medium-sized programs, no one is going
> to notice the difference in execution speed between one and
> three milliseconds anyway.
> 
A funny thing about speed. Possibly experienced coders see a difference whereas every day users probably do not. Yet speed is relative. Often I have read how shell scripts are slow. From a strict theoretical and design perspective, I am sure that is true. In certain iterative tests, I'm sure shell scripts can be shown to be slower than other scripting languages. Yet in my every day usage, and I have written a few long shell scripts, I don't notice anything. I once read a person's comment that once a shell script grows to beyond a few dozen lines that a person should move to Python or Perl. Okay. Whatever.

I'm not arguing that if I was a whiz kid with experience with dozens of languages I would not see a difference, or that a whiz kid can't whip up a script to show me the difference. I likely would see a difference. I'm just saying that as a user with above average knowledge and skills (but less than many hackers), the argument about speed is relative and speculative.

I'm teaching myself C++, C, and Python. A slow process. C and Python are not so bad as far as getting the hang of the syntax. C++ is esoteric. I'm not a computer science major, just an every day user. I'm getting so I can wander about the Trinity code without crying, but I still find C++ a weird language. Yes, there is a method to the madness, but the method still seems mad. :)

I'm teaching myself C++ to help myself, which is to keep Trinity alive and well. I don't expect to grow to a point where C++ goes on my resume. I just want to have a partial clue. With respect to my own needs, other languages seem better suited for me. :)

> I'm 98% sure that kdebindings is an integration package for
> kdelibs rather than QT3
> (or at least, I know of other QT packages for Java. Perl,
> etc.)  In theory, it should be
> possible for a programmer who needs this stuff to rewrite a
> given set of bindings
> using the target language's integration system, but my
> experience with doing things
> like that suggests that it would be so painful that most
> just wouldn't bother.

The important question for me is when I want to write a small applet program to run in the Trinity environment, I want to use Trinity dialogs to provide a native look and feel, and I don't want to use C++, how do I approach that project? Which languages are good choices? Seems to me a scripting language that has binding hooks into Trinity is an easy way to go for a non coder, but I'm asking so I can learn.

> That doesn't help you with Deskzilla unless you can
> convince its maintainers to rewrite its
> GUI portion using, say, Eclipse's SWT, though.

The ideal solution is to get kbugbuster fixed. Then we can eat our own dog food. The web is full of stories from the previous developers that kbugbuster is beyond repair, but I also have seen that when developers want something new and shiny they say things like that. The majority of people using the app are not qualified to judge those statements because they don't know C++. I'm sure some sweat equity is required to change the underlying interface from the old KDE bug reporting system to bugzilla, but I'm hoping kbugbuster is not beyond repair.

Darrell