2008-02-25

Blending scripting languages in modern enterprise environment

Is your company using "enterprisey" technologies like Java or .NET? Do you want to use flexible scripting languages like Python or Ruby?
There are interesting possibilities for popular and "mature" programming languages like those above. Many popular languages has implementations that work under Java or .NET environment, like Jython, JRuby, IronPython, IronRuby and others. It's quite old thing but it still worth mentioning it. The main problem with such solutions is their maturity and completeness, so checking and quick research is needed before doing decision.

You can also find implementations of old veterans like COBOL and REXX for new platforms. There are also single platform languages that have cool features of scripting languages like Groovy or beanshell for JVM.

Additional languages are primarily used in configuration, defining custom and complex business rules, adding Domain Specific Language features etc. Word of warn - do not create local Babel Tower by multiplying number of existing languages in single project. But it's nice to have to have one scripting language blended into main project platform.

Other case is porting applications from scripting to target platform. Constraints are narrow - all used third party libraries have to work on both platforms, so additional work is needed often. Practical example - here is interesting tutorial how to deploy web.py python application under Jython and JVM.

No comments: