In writing an install script, I quickly found that I'd have cross-platform issues, and bash scripts are hard to maintain. I decided to look for a cleaner solution that's more cross-platform.
The goal is to have an intelligent script sniff out components of the user's system and have as little user interaction as possible. That being stated, I thought about these languages:
- Python- cross-platform, and many other programs rely on it, so it may already be present
- Javascript- nodejs is required by part of my application, but it's a little clunky for exec calls
Are there any languages that would be a better fit for this application?
Requirements:
- Available on all platforms
- May be distributed as part of my application if small enough
- Little to no version variation, so Ruby is out
- *nix only for now, but eventually will be run on Windows
- Maintainable
- Clear syntax (Perl is out)
- Modular (if I sniff the OS, I can include separate OS-specific code)
- Capable of downloading files (unmet dependencies)
- Capable of relatively complex scripting tasks
- Testing for used HTTP ports
- Reading and parsing files for configuration data
- Checking for permissions and changing directories of insufficient privileges
- Open source