Re: implement idea firstly in script language?

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Mar 31, 2011, 18:51 UTC
Message-ID: <20110331185130.GB16981@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikq7iJt97Fq-TQH63RCrrvOJb348yhYDYW4qJL6@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 08:27:38PM +0800, 徐迪 wrote:

> i'm wondering to implement one idea during SOC, should i take time to
> implement it firstly in script language(just to see whether it works
> well)? And then rewrite it in C later?

It depends on what the idea is.

The reason to implement something in a higher-level language first is to verify that the approach is sensible. So you are making a tradeoff: you put less time/effort into the prototype (which has a high chance of failure), and pay for it later by having to port a successful result into its final form.

So knowing whether it's worth it depends on:

  1. How much time is saved by prototyping in a different language?

  2. What is the probability of the approach failing?

  3. What is the cost (in time) of porting the end result?

Estimating any of those is very specific to the problem at hand. It may even be for some ideas that the ultimate implementation could stay in the scripting language, which would make point (3) free.

-Peff