Development Issues + Poll

[Mike]

Hi everyone, unfortunately we've run into a bit of an issue with the development of PCL. For PCL to work as a true connector for Club Penguin, it has to be able to constantly read and handle what the server is sending it, but with PHP this functionality is complicated, requires workarounds, and cannot work for all users. Without knowing what is going on in the server, PCL is extremely limited in its potential and ends up relying on the user to let it know what is happening in the game, in effect defeating its whole purpose. The development team has been considering using a different language to write PCL in, and we've mostly agreed that Perl would be the best suited for the job. I know that many of you are used to PHP and might not like having to use a different language, however knowing how and when to use different languages is part of being a programmer. Perl is simply much better suited for PCL than PHP.

I've set up a poll where you can vote on which language you would like PCL to be written in. Please note that this poll is in no way definitive, we just want to see what the user base thinks about this issue. Feel free to discuss your suggestions or concerns in this thread.

Edit: We have decided on only developing the Java version of PCL.

[sam_]

Here are the issues we've encountered with PHP:

• Lack of threading (ability to do more than one thing at once internally. This causes issues as Mike as said pretty well. We cannot listen for more than one action at the same time).
• Naive developers / people (honestly, from my perspective, PHP is at the lowest level of the foodchain, at least for this kinda thing. If you teach people PHP as a base, they're going to try and apply it to everything. PHP is for website development. Nothing more. If you teach people something like Perl as a base, they're going to resort to that, but explore to levels higher and lower (like PHP), and they will notice the difference between scripting and web development.
• Generally awkwardness (we have to do a fair amount of hacks to keep things afloat. It's nasty - in addition to the previous point, this makes people determined to make PHP work at any cost).

Really, people've gotten a bit lazy. Slacking. As I said with the "base" thing, this in turn caused CPPSes to be fuck awful. PCL was the thing that made people use PHP and think it's some automagical tool that can do all these great things. Surprise surprise, it isn't.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I want Perl but honestly I don't know where we're going to go, and where I am going to go with this personally because right now all this fussing is damn awkward and I don't know if I want to continue.

[Snowfire0206]

Is there anyway to develop two versions? One for PHP to run scripts online and the other for users to run locally (Perl), or can Perl scripts be executed online?

[sam_]

Is there anyway to develop two versions? One for PHP to run scripts online and the other for users to run locally (Perl), or can Perl scripts be executed online?

Perl scripts can be, yes. There is a way to develop two but quite frankly we don't want to.

[Mrtrop]

I voted for Perl. One Perl's main focuses is Network Programming, which is pretty much what we're doing. A few people on the IRC Channel we're worried that new PCL users will struggle to learn Perl and I honestly do not see why. Perl's Syntax is similar to PHP, it's just more powerful.

Everyone in this community believes that PHP shall be used for everything, it's time for that to change. PHP should only be used for web development and people have been using PHP where it should NOT be used. This is one of the places where PHP should not be used.

[Snowfire0206]

Is there anyway to develop two versions? One for PHP to run scripts online and the other for users to run locally (Perl), or can Perl scripts be executed online?

Perl scripts can be, yes. There is a way to develop two but quite frankly we don't want to.

A lot of people would appreciate it. Well thanks anyway, guess now I should hit the books on Perl. Oops I don't have any, guess I gotta go to Walmart (if they have any)

[sam_]

Is there anyway to develop two versions? One for PHP to run scripts online and the other for users to run locally (Perl), or can Perl scripts be executed online?

Perl scripts can be, yes. There is a way to develop two but quite frankly we don't want to.

A lot of people would appreciate it. Well thanks anyway, guess now I should hit the books on Perl. Oops I don't have any, guess I gotta go to Walmart (if they have any)

Perl is awesome. I hope you're serious, you should go get some.

[Snowfire0206]

A lot of people would appreciate it. Well thanks anyway, guess now I should hit the books on Perl. Oops I don't have any, guess I gotta go to Walmart (if they have any)

Perl is awesome. I hope you're serious, you should go get some.

I am, but I really don't know if my local Walmart has a book on Perl. I live in the hick town and we are very lucky to have a Walmart, but sadly I don't think they have one.
EDIT: There's about 25 different kinds on the iBookstore, so which one do you recommend me to search for/get?

[sam_]

A lot of people would appreciate it. Well thanks anyway, guess now I should hit the books on Perl. Oops I don't have any, guess I gotta go to Walmart (if they have any)

Perl is awesome. I hope you're serious, you should go get some.

I am, but I really don't know if my local Walmart has a book on Perl. I live in the hick town and we are very lucky to have a Walmart, but sadly I don't think they have one.
EDIT: There's about 25 different kinds on the iBookstore, so which one do you recommend me to search for/get?

Name a few? Also, you should probably get on IRC. We're helping each other out. There's a good few intros and such we're reading which we have dug up. Perhaps you could just join us and read along!

[Snowfire0206]

Perl for Dummies (wouldn't be surprised if you told me not this one), Learning Perl (Randal Schwartz), Programming Perl (Tom Christiansen), and Effective Perl Programming (Joseph N. Hall). There's a ton more, but you said name a few.