4 ms·

Why not Python? Syntax is much cleaner and there’s nothing you can’t achieve. Even performance is on par.

by loose_pants 7y ago

jacobush 7y ago
Python as in Scons? Otherwise I don't understand your comment.
- bsder 7y ago
  Scons is effectively dead, and I wish people would start removing it from the Python build systems web pages. Meson is written in Python and isn't dead. However, Meson requires a partner to actually build things--something like cmake or ninja. However, I think the original poster meant "Why Lua instead of Python?" And the only real answer is "Because that's what the author wanted to use."
  - EliRivers 7y ago
    I only ever used SCons once, but it's had a handful of releases this year (containing what looks like some quite significant updates and improvements), the last being in August. In what way is it effectively dead?
    - bsder 7y ago
      It doesn't have any marquee products using it since, Blender, IIRC, dumped it. For auxiliary things that you don't become expert in like source control, build systems, etc., it's vitally important to have a vibrant community around it so you can simply look up the answer and get back to your job. Or, you can have an emergent AI robot like Randal Schwartz, Wietse Venema, or Armin Rigo handle that support (seriously, do those guys ever sleep?). But you need to have one or the other, and Scons never seemed to. I really don't understand why Scons never took off. I think it was simply that it was too early. Nobody actually cared about cross-platform in the sense of Windows/OS X/ Linux. Of course, Blender did care about that, and still dumped it. So, YMMV. I think people only started to genuinely care about "cross platform" when developing both cloud code and client code simultaneously became a thing. And then that accelerated with the polyglot of languages layered on top of Javascript.
  - waruqi 7y ago
    yes.
  - jhasse 7y ago
    btw: There's also Waf written in Python, which also isn't dead.
    - mandor 7y ago
      we are also happy with waf, wich gives us a lot of flexibility (e.g., use python libs that are not build-related) and use a language that the team already know. (https://waf.io https://waf.io)
    - jacobush 7y ago
      It’s pining for the fjords.
- stochastic_monk 7y ago
  There's also Snakemake, which is mostly used in bioinformatics pipelines, but it's sort of like a Makefile program with inline python enabled. It's nice and I could imagine it getting some adoption because of its flexibility, but my C++ projects tend to have their needs met with Makefile.
waruqi 7y ago
Xmake built-in luajit, without any external dependencies, can be used after installation, although most distributions have built-in python, but there are still many systems that do not install python by default, such as windows. Also I don't like the syntax of python

Why not Python? Syntax is much cleaner and there’s nothing you can’t achieve. Even performance is on par.

jacobush 7y ago

Python as in Scons? Otherwise I don't understand your comment.

bsder 7y ago
Scons is effectively dead, and I wish people would start removing it from the Python build systems web pages. Meson is written in Python and isn't dead. However, Meson requires a partner to actually build things--something like cmake or ninja. However, I think the original poster meant "Why Lua instead of Python?" And the only real answer is "Because that's what the author wanted to use."
- EliRivers 7y ago
  I only ever used SCons once, but it's had a handful of releases this year (containing what looks like some quite significant updates and improvements), the last being in August. In what way is it effectively dead?
  - bsder 7y ago
    It doesn't have any marquee products using it since, Blender, IIRC, dumped it. For auxiliary things that you don't become expert in like source control, build systems, etc., it's vitally important to have a vibrant community around it so you can simply look up the answer and get back to your job. Or, you can have an emergent AI robot like Randal Schwartz, Wietse Venema, or Armin Rigo handle that support (seriously, do those guys ever sleep?). But you need to have one or the other, and Scons never seemed to. I really don't understand why Scons never took off. I think it was simply that it was too early. Nobody actually cared about cross-platform in the sense of Windows/OS X/ Linux. Of course, Blender did care about that, and still dumped it. So, YMMV. I think people only started to genuinely care about "cross platform" when developing both cloud code and client code simultaneously became a thing. And then that accelerated with the polyglot of languages layered on top of Javascript.
- waruqi 7y ago
  yes.
- jhasse 7y ago
  btw: There's also Waf written in Python, which also isn't dead.
  - mandor 7y ago
    we are also happy with waf, wich gives us a lot of flexibility (e.g., use python libs that are not build-related) and use a language that the team already know. (https://waf.io https://waf.io)
  - jacobush 7y ago
    It’s pining for the fjords.
stochastic_monk 7y ago
There's also Snakemake, which is mostly used in bioinformatics pipelines, but it's sort of like a Makefile program with inline python enabled. It's nice and I could imagine it getting some adoption because of its flexibility, but my C++ projects tend to have their needs met with Makefile.

waruqi 7y ago

Xmake built-in luajit, without any external dependencies, can be used after installation, although most distributions have built-in python, but there are still many systems that do not install python by default, such as windows. Also I don't like the syntax of python