Best language for writing automation software

[johndea]

Let's say I want to write some automation software.

I want it to be crossplatform (Windows, Linux, and maybe Mac).

What is the best language to use for this software?
Python is fast to write, but then I can't hide the source code and distribute an executable. Your thoughts?

 

[lancis]

At the end its your convenience that matters if the choice is between making fast or not making the software at all.

I personally choose C/C++ and a bunch of freeware libraries such as CURL, but thats only because I know that I can finish the project within acceptable time period.

 

[johndea]

From C++, how do you interact with the browser and do macros?

 

[lancis]

From C++, how do you interact with the browser and do macros?

I rarely write applications that require IE, but you can use MFC - there is plenty of support for web access, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d06h2x6e.aspx

 

[dr_0x]

Python is fast to write, but then I can't hide the source code and distribute an executable. Your thoughts?

Yes you can.

http://www.py2exe.org/
http://www.pyinstaller.org/

Python is the balm for fast development and flexibility. Also as far as language goes check out the natural language toolkit (nltk)

www.nltk.org

Don't get me wrong c++ is great too, just that python will get you from a to b quicker.

 

[neutralhatter]

Best is to look first for automation libraries instead of a language. development languages in general are to abstract to define wich is the best solution for your needs.

 

[rippa911]

C++ execute fastest. Python is fast to program but very slow to execute. Not recommended.

 

[dr_0x]

C++ execute fastest. Python is fast to program but very slow to execute. Not recommended.

Thats a crock of shit. Your Python code is byte compiled just like c++. You are just spouting of some stuff you heard someplace. There are cases where c and c++ would be faster than python but that *only* comes from optimizing the built in functions of python. 99% of the time python will be just as fast.

 

[lancis]

Thats a crock of shit. Your Python code is byte compiled just like c++. You are just spouting of some stuff you heard someplace. There are cases where c and c++ would be faster than python but that *only* comes from optimizing the built in functions of python. 99% of the time python will be just as fast.

I invite you to write programs with same functionality in C and Python, and test the execution speed. You'll find that C is faster, and the difference comes from the fact that Python is an interpreted language, while C compiles to machine code.

One of my earlier projects was to write an interpreted C like language - trust me there is too much overhead once interpreter is in play.

 

[dr_0x]

Really, I may jumped the gun some and I am not trying to start an argument about this. You can write python modules in C if you need performance. If you are doing some serious sh*t then yeah, C is going to be faster. My point is this, with the speed of computers these days you don't need to do everything in C. There is a reason that many large companies (*cough* Youtube) do almost all their stuff in python and only optimise in C or C++ when absolutely needed. I have personal experience with a company whose entire codebase was in python and we made lots of money and did some serious sh*t. Never once did we run into a situation where we *needed* to use C. So most people, especially those who are asking what language they should use will be better off just going with python. Thats all I am going to say about this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bytecode

I urge anyone interested in programming to watch this. If you can't make it through the whole thing start a min 35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKQS8EDG1P4

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-psyco/index.html