I have just had the pleasure of writing a little script in VBS; it took me 30 minutes (including making some coffee) from looking at a webpage that included the syntax to actually completing it- this process would have taken me a day in C. (without having to learn it as well)

Problem is, of course, the platform specificity. And of course the M$ link. I know there are various scripting laguages out there, but I really need a simple GUI driven non-script language that I can compile for *nix and win32 (urgh!). The reason for non-scripted is that I would like to use subroutines for common functions. It only needs to handle very simple mathematical calculations. (I'm writing handy calculators for players of a wargame, probably mostly window$ users, but I'm a *nix user, obviously, so it has to have support for us!)

Java springs to mind, but it seems so PAINFULLY slow, even to do fairly simple stuff. If it was OO, that would be a bonus too. I suppose I'm just being a bit lazy; I could just compile a C program natively on 'nix AND win32.

Potentially, I would like to add these separate elements into one larger program (this is where I would perhaps prefer C). I *WOULDN'T* like to pick up a new language as complex as C *YET*, at least not until I learn to use C properly.

Any tips? For example, if you use Java, is there a nice free RAD/IDE for it? Anyone tried Kylix? (I have it on CD) Or maybe you could suggest another approach?

Ricardo

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