Very BASIC Question: What language is "script''?

[Herbal Influence]

I've done scripting myself.
I know some of the common programming languages.
But I don't know what "language" the script language is.
I asked the same question about a two years ago.:o

Does anybody know?
Is it a "language" defined by the "engine"?
Is it Java?

Thanx - !

[whisper]

It's a BI's proprietary language, I don't think you'll find it anywhere else

[Herbal Influence]

Wow - thanx for the fast answer!
Do you also know the "basis" for the script language?
Sure it's not a compiling thing but to be interepreted by ..... "the engine"?

What might the language of the engine be?
Just curious and fascinated --.. since 2001. ;-)

[Big Dawg KS]

But I don't know what "language" the script language is.

As whisper said it's a BI proprietary scripting language. I don't know if they gave it any official name but for the most part it's just referred to as either SQF or SQS (depending on syntax).


Do you also know the "basis" for the script language?
Sure it's not a compiling thing but to be interepreted by ..... "the engine"?


Looks C based (or some derivative of C).


What might the language of the engine be?
Just curious and fascinated --.. since 2001. ;-)

Engine was written in C++ and according to an old post (from one of the devs) some assembly. Doesn't necessarily mean BIS didn't use other languages somewhere during the development process though.

[Herbal Influence]

thanx, Big Dawg !
I would like to hear even more on this topic. ;-)

[Big Dawg KS]

thanx, Big Dawg !
I would like to hear even more on this topic. ;-)

The person to talk to then would be Suma (http://forums.bistudio.com/member.php?u=40130).

[DMarkwick]

Script is what you get when you create some complex compound commands in another language, and allow, or expose, those compound commands to users. How the script is structured is as different between developers as the games themselves. "script" is not a single language, it's an end product usable by the user.

[Herbal Influence]

Thanx - so designing script commands is it like adding shell skripts (Linux) or even batch files (Microsoft) one after another?

And it takes place in C++ and they are offered to us as an script language that will have to be interpreted by the AA-core program?

Seems to be like defining your own program language for a very special "environment", the "core" program where the graphic engine is only a part from?

@<hidden>:
Thanx for the hint. Sure Suma could answer it all fastly - at last I believe that ;-)
But I have to make sure that the speed of input doesn't overwhelm me. ;-)

[Big Dawg KS]

Seems to be like defining your own program language for a very special "environment", the "core" program where the graphic engine is only a part from?

That's pretty much the case, but I'm not sure what you mean about the graphics engine.


Sure Suma could answer it all fastly...

If he has the time to spare. Being BI's lead programmer seems like a very busy job.

[whisper]

From the history of it, at first I'd guess it was a pure interpreter (ie taking commands one after the other and executing them without real knowledge of what will be written after), but they introduced some compiling things (ie, pre-reading and translation of scripts into instructions suitable for the game engine) which make me wonder how it works internally now.

They probably initially just wanted to have easy access, on the fly, to inside functions of the engine (like "tell unit X to move there") without having to re-compile bunch of things just to make a soldier move in-game. Then they needed more and more functions. It ended with an interpreter, they released it with the commercial product, and hundreds of wanabee mission makers with a very large palette of different ideas kept needing more and finding workarounds of engine limitation with it. Ideas, needs and workarounds step by step incorporated into each version of the scripting language.

Giving the "sqf" language we have now, with years old strange things, syntax, and limitations. How I'd love to see a hash type implemented, for example!