Hey,

Colin really had a good point there.

If you still want to use scripts after Colin's email, I know of a scripting
language called LUA that can be easily adapted to be used on the GBA,
with the advantage that you can compile scripts to a bytecode format,
so you are at least saving space using it.

Here goes the URL http://www.lua.org/

It's a great piece of software, and it's open source. And besides that, you
can easily use it at any platform. Worth taking a look.

Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: "Colin Brown" <user@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 9:56 AM
Subject: [gbadev] Re: Scripting on the GBA


> --- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, "JC Matthews" <kreedskulls@y...> wrote:
> > Hello I were wondering if there is any info on Scripting for the
> GBA.
>
> to an extent, i'm being devils advocate here!
>
> exactly what would the advantage be in using a scripting language
> implementation on the gba?
>
> I can see the point for a pc or next gen console game:
> * scripts can be used unchanged for different platforms
> * script changes and tweaks can be made during program execution
> * keeping a sandbox environment for safe script execution
> * scripts can be used without making a build, so non programmers can
> easily add functionality
>
> these things are IMO not easily applicable to gba:
>
> * porting a gba game to other platforms: the gba is so different to
> most other gaming hardware that it seems like it would be better to
> just do a total re-write anyway.
>
> * making changes during program execution would require either an
> interpreted language(too slow) or compilation on the fly (on a gba?)
> you would also need a console and some way of hooking up a keyboard.
>
> * a safe sandbox virtual machine would surely have too big an impact
> on performance for the puny gba cpu
>
> * not having an interpreter or a normal file system makes it kind of
> difficult to add scripts without compiling and linking.
>
> * there will also be resource issues related to having to keep and
> environment(stack etc) for each active script...
>
> Ok, i'm sure there are ways to deal with the above points (i'd really
> like to here them :)) but in the end even if there are work-arounds
> and this stuff is doable, what extra does a scripting language give
> you that is really worth the inevitable dent in performance? (and the
> cost in implementing the scripting and learning to use the language?)
>
> cheers
>
> Col
>
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