Forums Feature Suggestions mIRC Scripting Language

Good morning.

It's well known that mIRC's Scripting Language (let me call it as "mSL" for this post) is the easiest and better documented language available and also the best to "extend" by using DLLs.

So, I would like to suggest Khaled to create something like a "compiler" for "mSL" so that developers could use it to create programs and applications.

I already read about it on some forums around the internet, and many people just say "go learn vb/c/etc" yet I think "mSL" is easier and better documented than any language there, and it is still a very robust and usefull language.

Is anyone with me? Am I the one who would like this? Please post your opinion too, and Khaled please do it as I know there are many people who would like this!

TYVM for you attention,
Paulo.

Already suggested previously in this thread. There is a reference to using the Search, however, when I searched for the maximum of 5 years, that was the only directly related topic I was able to find. That does not mean there aren't other related posts.

Sorry!

BTW it's nice to know other people already suggested that, as this means that I'm not the only one that want it!

TYVM Paulo

On the other hand, the fact that other people have suggested it and nothing happened is a good hint that it's probably not going to happen.

True, but not definite, as people have requested emoticons for years, and Khaled has stated that they are on his list of things to do, though he didn't say where on that list they fall.

It would be interesting to see it happen, but it's so incredibly unlikely that I wouldn't hope for it.

I think the key phrase is that "he didn't say where on that list they fall". I'll bet somewhere really low on such a list, an "mIRC compiler" is also present. Realistically though, we will probably never see this.

Emoticons are also slightly different, because they would likely be part of a bigger functionality that allowed embedding of images inside channel windows, something that is actually needed and related to the functioning of mIRC as it exists now. A compiler would be completely tangential to mIRC as an IRC client. I think that speaks for itself as to its place.

I wonder why people don't believe the "mSL Compiler" could just pop out there from nowhere... I prefer to keep the positive thinking about it! Hope Khaled do it soon as it would help me (and many other ppl too) alot!

You should read the other threads to see why this is unlikely. Specifically, about 90% of the functionality of the language depends on some kind of IRC connection, or in the least, mIRC's very specific UI (what does /echo -s mean in a windowless application? what would /echo -a even do? or /echo -l without a highlight dialog). Those things wouldn't exist in a generalized compiler/interpreter.

Secondly, Khaled invests his time into an *IRC client*. Writing a "compiler", as I mentioned, would be completely tangential to mIRC as a product. People aren't paying the registration fee for a programming language, there are plenty of superior free ones out there. They're paying to use a good IRC client, and most of them expect their money to go into furthering that effort, not a compiler. I don't see how writing a compiler makes mIRC a better IRC client. Khaled can do whatever he wants in his free time (and of course he can do whatever he wants with mIRC too), but if he ever started diverting his attention away from mIRC's needed maintenance work in order to introduce a compiler, I for one would be pretty disappointed.

Realize however that because it has nothing to do with mIRC, you don't need Khaled to write it. If you want a compiler, go write one yourself-- or talk to some people who are capable and willing. If there are so "many" other people who want a compiler, I'm sure at least one of them is technically minded enough to do it.

Of course, I'd also like to echo one sentiment that you've probably already heard: if you're really writing scripts in mIRC that don't make use of any of mIRC IRC support and is a completely generalized non-IRC script, you really *should* make an effort to learn another language. mIRC makes a really poor general purpose language. The argument "I know mIRC's language" doesn't hold up. If you really knew how to program, syntax would not be your bottleneck. And if it is, there are many general purpose languages that have very similar syntaxes to mIRC. Tcl, for example, is one of them-- once you get past some of its quirky syntactic differences, you will find it has plenty in common.