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MIVA Script

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MIVA Script
Paradigmimperative
DeveloperMiva Merchant
First appeared1996 (1996)
Stable release
5.0.6
Typing disciplineDynamic, weak
OSCross-platform
LicensePrivate ref here
Filename extensions.mv, .mvc
Websitehttp://www.mivamerchant.com/
Major implementations
Miva Merchant
Influenced by
C, Perl, Java, C++

Miva Script is a proprietary computer scripting language mainly used for internet applications such as e-commerce. Today it is developed by Miva Merchant, based in San Diego, California. Although quite a number of web hosting companies support Miva Script on their servers, it is significantly less widespread than its popular competitor PHP.

History

The language was first developed under the name htmlscript by Joe Austin and others in 1995, and a company, htmlscript corporation, was formed the following year.

In 1997, Jon Burchmore extensively rewrote the language to make it more syntactically consistent, although the new engine supported both old htmlscript and new (named mivascript) syntaxes.

Language features

Miva Script is often described as 'XML-like' although this is something of a misnomer. It consists of tags which may be interspersed with (x)html and which all start with <Mv . There are both paired and stand-alone ("empty") tags. In addition, from version 3.9 onwards, HTML attributes which are encapsulated with braces (e.g. <img src="{g.source}">) are evaluated by the Miva Merchant processor.

Probably the most significant feature of the language is that it has native support for the venerable dBase database platform (DBF III), albeit with a proprietary (but very fast) index format.

Variables are untyped and are not pre-declared. .mvc and .mv are the file extensions used for Miva Script.

Proponents of the language cite a relatively short learning curve, fast script development and native database support as the principal reasons to use the language...[citation needed]

Implementations

Miva Merchant Empresa

In versions numbered less than 4.0, Miva Merchant Empresa is a script interpreter available for web servers running *ix and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The most recent interpreter version is 3.9705. Interpreted Miva Script is still widely supported by many web hosts. Versions numbered 3.9x are a transitional form of the language, implementing some (but not all) of the new features found in version 4, such as arrays.

Since 4.0, Miva Merchant Empresa is a Virtual Machine for running compiled mivascript, again available in versions for *ix and Microsoft Windows.

The current version level 5.x added new language constructs, native MySQL support, a new access-methodology for dbIII tables, called MIVA-SQL, as well as a new templating syntax that the Empresa Virtual Machine can compile on the fly.

Miva Merchant Mia

Miva Merchant Mia is a version of the Miva Merchant engine designed to run on a Windows PC as a localhost server watching a specified port. (usually 8000 or 8080). No other server software is required unless the POP and SMTP functions are required. This provides a portable, stand-alone development environment.

There is a Miva Merchant Mia release to complement each Miva Merchant Empresa release, and once again, versions prior to 4 are interpreters while 4.0+ only work with compiled script. There are a few minor differences between.

Miva Merchant Script Compiler

The long-awaited Miva Merchant Script Compiler was introduced in mid-2002, offering both better performance and the closure of application source code. Compilability required some changes to the language, with support for the old htmlscript syntax and macros evaluated at runtime (often considered a security risk) dropped. The compiler produces a platform-independent bytecode which runs on the Miva Merchant Empresa and Miva Merchant Mia Virtual Machines (presently 2/15/2005—there are minor variations between Miva Merchant Empresa and Miva Merchant Mia Virtual Machines).

In May 2005, MIVA Corporation made the Script Compiler available free.

In August 2007, Miva Merchant was separated from its parent company as a result of a management buy-out. There has been no statement on the future development of the scripting language.[citation needed] (ref. press release)

See also

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