[Alan Anderson]

I've seen Lua. I haven't seen anything about it that makes me think it's any better than other scripting languages. I get the impression that it's Just Another Java.



On the other hand, I really really like Tcl. Its syntax is so minimal that it's almost nonexistent, and I appreciate a language that gets out of my way. At the same time, it's so easy to write small procedures to extend the interpreter to act like whatever tiny language is appropriate for the task. I got to the point where I could often write a page of script, then take an existing configuration or data file and just execute it to get things done. The networking support is just short of magical, and there are code packages out there to make web applications almost as easy as writing a DOS batch file. Alas, I've been forced away from such simple and effective tools and toward more "institutionally viable" things like PHP.