Expert: Ralph McArdell - 6/9/2004

Question
Hello!, Im a computer technican professionally and a computer nerd otherwise. Im looking to program a telnet server which i know is quite simple in programming terms, i can program decently in the Python language but dont have much experience with programming otherwise. I wanted to ask what language you would suggest that would be easy enough to learn fairly quickly how to program what i need in, I dont want to become a programming master and it doesnt have to be the most efficient language to write it in like C or assembly language hehe. Sorry for the long question. ( What language should i learn quickly to write a decent telnet server for a small game in )  thats the summary.
Thank you sir.  

Answer
[Sorry for the delay, the AllExpert site has not been accepting answer postings for many hours]

You asked a C++ expert. What answer do you expect me to give?<grin>

Seriously, if what you know is up to the job then use that. If not - because it lack facilities you require or a lack of efficiency or for other reasons - such as ease/cost/legality of deployment, then you should look at some other environment to develop your application in.

Now the point about me being a C++ expert has a serious side to it. I do not know all languages that might be useful for you. I looked very briefly at Python, more at Perl, a little Java, .NET and C# and of course the more 'traditional' languages such as C++, C, Pascal, FORTRAN (but not COBOL!), and various assembler languages - of which I am most at home these days with C++, and before that C.

Of course, you say you wish to develop a server for a 'small' game - by which I presume you mean 'simple'. Anyhow, whatever the size or complexity of the game - maybe you should use the same language as you are using for the game development. And of course the server aspect may restrict your choices. It may be the thing to do on your server platform to use a native build of a shared library, DLL or service executable or maybe you have to use a Java, Perl or PHP script to use with some middleware application such as a web server. The other point has to do with performance - you may decide to use, say, C++ to obtain a more efficient server. However, efficiency may not be a problem depending on the loading of the server and the software architectural techniques used.

Note that last part. Just using, say, C++ to gain performance will do no good if the underlying design of the server is inefficient - for example: you process each connection in one thread and block all other connections until the current one has terminated as you are busy doing work on behalf of the current connection. Obviously such a design is not going to work if you need to have more than one connection active at any one time no matter which language you use.

So my suggestion is stick with what you know (Python) to start with and invest in looking into how to write network server software. If your initial language choice proves inadequate then list your options - Perl, Java, .NET C#, C++, etc.. - and choose one that seems to fit your circumstances best. Ignore assembler. No one in their right mind would right such software in assembler by choice (OK maybe a few die-hards - but are they in their right minds..?).

Of these only C++ (and C and the like) will allow you to compile down to a native executable without additional runtime support (Perl interpreter, JVM in the case of Java or the .NET CLR). If you do decide to go the C++ route then you should look at the facilities provided by the ACE library (see http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html ) and related documentation and books. However C++ is _not_ an easy language to learn and apply well quickly - I suspect this may be true of many languages, but is especially true of C++ due to its depth (or breadth if you prefer). You might like to look at Accelerated C++ by Koenig and Moo - this is often sited as a good C++ starter book for those having already used at least one other programming language.

Have a look at the ACCU site for additional resources http://www.accu.org/