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On 17/10/2010 at 14:25, xxxxxxxx wrote:
Translation depends on your experience and knowledge of the languages. In the end, you can translate almost any language into the other as the basic concepts of all languages are the same.
COFFEE has approximately the same syntax as C++ and it uses approximately the same function naming conventions so it´s really not that hard. Of course there is no real object oriented programming in COFFEE, also there is so much more in C++ that can be done which is simply impossible in COFFEE (templates, polymorphism, inhertage etc.).
It depends on what you would like to do. If you want to code full blown plugins there is no other choice than turning to C++, but if you want to create small and useful plugins you could also get away with using Python. But for full access C++ is the way to go. But once you work with C++ you won´t go back to COFFEE, that´s what the experience shows. I started with COFFEE too but once I was in C++...COFFEE what?
Cinema 4D only supports C++ so there is no real alternative. But C++ is a great language and there is a reason it is the most used language on earth in application programming (also an advantage of not having a fully object-oriented programming language, it can at the same time completely be used for system programming), it´s fast, it´s flexible and it´s fun (well, most of the time). But that´s also a matter of taste and application target I´d say. Java is a great language too and C# is also pretty cool I must say. But fully Object oriented languages like Smalltalk also have their advantages, well there is a long list. If you go C++ it´s an excellent choice in any case.
MEL is specific to Maya so it´s not really comparable but it seems to allow full access to nearly everything in Maya which is just what is necessary for adding stuff to an existing main application. But I never worked with it so I cannot really say anything about it to be honest, I also don´t know about its performance. But it´s no option for C4D anyway, so screw it.