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#jonathanblow#scriptinglanguages#gameengines

Jonathan Blow on scripting languages

Jeru Sanders

438 subscribers • 1 video on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 2 people: 1 on Hacker News and 1 in engineering communities.
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 7 years ago, in an area where tools change fast.
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

185K views7 years ago2 recommendations

Game developmentProgramming languagesGame programmingLanguage design and type systems

Jonathan Blow argues that embedding separate scripting languages in game engines is redundant when the primary language can do the job.

Full vod: twitch.tv/videos/424322333?t=01h03m50s Nothing else related was said, but there's Twitch chat if you wanna see that.

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a great explanation of why separate scripting languages in game engines are often redundant and unnecessary.

u/llothar68in r/ProgrammingLanguages • Recommends

Why are there no static typed embeddable script/extension language? I have to say, i find it irritating that there is not a single successful extension language that is static typed. It could offer much more help to the casual user/programmer who just want to extend it a little bit. Unlike the dynamic typed script languages they could offer a lot more help and safety. I agree with Jonathan Blow on this one [video Or do i miss and there is one.

pipeline_peakon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Lua, a Misunderstood Language (2021)”

Lua doesn’t really solve anything fundamental. It’s popular because it’s small and easy to embed. But embeddable interpreters, while fun pet projects, they’re redundant and trivial. Jonathan Blow has a great explanation of this link to this video Write reusable libraries first, let people embed them into whatever scripting language/GUI app they want. Scripting languages, Linux distros, it’s all Pokémon cards.

pipeline_peakon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Scripting-language inspired by JavaScript and GLSL”

There’s nothing about this that screams “this language needs to be created”. Call me a pessimist, but I’ve seen So many toy languages on HN. My advice is, if you don’t have any original ideas and want users, your best bet is to implement a subset of JS, that’s the route I’m taking. Jonathan Blow has a great talk on the redundancy of scripting languages in game engines. link to this video

pengaruon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Parsing S-expressions in C (2019)”

> I can guarantee you that a game will need a scripting language. Better get that done already. Is that really so certain? link to this video

veidelison Hacker News • Mentions

On “Modern Javascript: Everything you missed over the last 10 years (2020)”

"Gaming engines are scriptable for a reason" - I'm sure I've heard the opposite opinion from respectable sources at least 2 times. Here's Jonathan Blow link to this video I agree with the rest wholeheartedly.