This release includes new features and new supported languages. The full list of
supported languages include:
- Javascript (1.6R4);
- Groovy (1.1-beta1);
- Beanshell (2.0b5);
- Jelly (1.0);
- JRuby (0.9.9);
- Jython (2.2b1);
- Pnuts (1.1);
- Jaskell (1.0);
- JScheme (7.2);
- TCL (1.4.0);
- AWK (0.14);
- f3 (?.?);
- Fortress (build 156);
- Scala (2.4.0);
- Sleep (2.1-beta15);
- Janino (2.5.5);
- Scriptella (0.7);
- Velocity (1.4);
- Freemarker (2.3.9);
- Ant (1.7.0);
- Maven (2.0.6).
Scriptlandia: what is it? It's the effort to build scripting command line environment on top of JVM. The user don't have to worry how to install or configure libraries for different scripting languages. It will be done automatically at installation and/or at execution time.
This project is useful for doing fast prototyping in your favorite language without spending time at all on installation/configuration (AKA CoC - convention over Configuration). It's also good for building simple command-line tools.
How is it different, say, from scripting-for-java project?
1. It's not tied to Java 6 platform. You can use Java 5; it's possible to have this code ready for java 1.4.
2. You can specify dependencies for the language in the form of dependencies file (currently it is based on maven 2 pom.xml format). As the result, these dependencies will be downloaded automatically from the server to your local repository when it's required.
3. It's easy to build environment in which scripts are aware of each other. It can be done by adding new dependencies, not through ancient CLASSPATH approach, but rather through dependencies file.
4. Language gear is available through the file extension. Thanks to jdic project, corresponding gear will be executed, based on file extension.
5. Based on extension, different convenient programs-launchers can be assigned to existing extensions like jar, war etc. As an example, if jar represents micro-edition application, suitable launcher will be started. In another example we can associate jar file with ant script and extend available commands for jar file, but everything whatever could be expressed as ant target.
6. New extensions are introduced: .sl (scriptlandia) and .cw (classworld). They can be used for starting arbitrary programs with correct dependencies specified. See examples: "cafebabe", "jclasslib", "udoc", "jlgui" for details.
7. Ant and Maven scripts are first-class citizens: you can interpret them as yet another scripting languages.
8. Scriptlandia is integrated with Nailgun server. It means that for simple scripts you can keep JVM in-memory, drastically reducing start-up time for running scripts.
9. It is not nescessary to install all dependencies at installation time. Installer program will download and install only minimally required libraries. The rest will be downloaded when you invoke fitst time the script.
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