ecsl@netbloc.com: 9580: Re: If, Then, Else, Etc

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Re: If, Then, Else, Etc
J Peter Young
Thu, 16 Nov 2000 07:25:59 -0800

Thu, 16 Nov 2000 07:25:59 -0800

I too am a new user of ECS and I must admit to having a very difficult time learning
the language. I am a software engineer with 20 years experience and have written two
languages very much like the one used in ECS. My biggest frustrations were:

1. The large config file. I think it is a mistake to recommend people start with the
big file. It causes more confusion that it solves.
2. The "difficult" syntax of the language and a complete lack of documentation on how
to use it. Specifically:

The rigid structure of the statements - the formatting and the 4 and only elements each
statement has to have limit the functionality and really take a lot of effort to figure
out how to achieve even simple constructs. For instance I still don't know how to code

c = b - a

Awkward blocking constructs and very limited function calling. The recent other mail
outlines some of the problems with the blocking constructs, beven those are talking
about really, really simple programming tasks. And nobody mentioned this like return
values or parameters - I know, I know they can all be done with global variables - I
mean items. But actually you can't achieve the same functionaly with global variables,
only some of it.

I pretty sure I understand why it was written this way. The interpreter is simple, it
fits the event based nature of the ECS engine and it is was probably easy to extend.
But I bet the way it has evolved it is not longer that easy to extend.

For me, the biggest single improvement that could be made to ECS is to replace the existing
language with a real language - Java or VB.

But I have to agree with everyone else. Compared to writing all this stuff for myself,
using ECS is way, way better. I can change hardware to almost anything on the market
and I can get enhancements made by writing a small check. Life is good.

Peter

I too am a new user of ECS and I must admit to having a very difficult time learning the language. I am a software engineer with 20 years experience and have written two languages very much like the one used in ECS. My biggest frustrations were:

1. The large config file. I think it is a mistake to recommend people start with the big file. It causes more confusion that it solves.

2. The "difficult" syntax of the language and a complete lack of documentation on how to use it. Specifically:

The rigid structure of the statements - the formatting and the 4 and only elements each statement has to have limit the functionality and really take a lot of effort to figure out how to achieve even simple constructs. For instance I still don't know how to code

c = b - a

Awkward blocking constructs and very limited function calling. The recent other mail outlines some of the problems with the blocking constructs, beven those are talking about really, really simple programming tasks. And nobody mentioned this like return values or parameters - I know, I know they can all be done with global variables - I mean items. But actually you can't achieve the same functionaly with global variables, only some of it.

I pretty sure I understand why it was written this way. The interpreter is simple, it fits the event based nature of the ECS engine and it is was probably easy to extend. But I bet the way it has evolved it is not longer that easy to extend.

For me, the biggest single improvement that could be made to ECS is to replace the existing language with a real language - Java or VB.

But I have to agree with everyone else. Compared to writing all this stuff for myself, using ECS is way, way better. I can change hardware to almost anything on the market and I can get enhancements made by writing a small check. Life is good.

Peter