Hi,
what do you think lead sa-mp developers to choose pawn as scripting language for sa-mp?
Because they liked it - simple as!
It's really unpopular
Says who? I like it, many other coders here like it. I think you're confusing "uncommon" with "unpopular".
there should have been lots of other choises. For example Lua,
Maybe there were, but they chose the one they liked.
which would probably be a lot easier to integrate to server instead of pawn.
Again, based on what? Do you know how easy PAWN is to integrate?
And it's scripts also can be compiled.
So can PAWN's - that's a non-argument.
Or even a plain C/C++...
Using a low-level programming language to provide scripting support is a bad idea, which is why almost no-one does it. It gives users too much power, which most of them don't want and can't utilise.
It's a good language for its purpose, but it does not bode well on your resume. Employers have never heard of it. A shame, really.
Done fine for me, just tell them what it is. My main languages are Haskell, PAWN, and C++ - most employers have only heard of one of those, you just need to highlight the fact that you know several languages, it doesn't really matter what they are.
Another question could be: Why NOT PAWN? The sheer vast number of servers written in it proves that it is fit for purpose, and the ability to do run-time code inspection and modification, while rare, is something not found in other scripting languages, and which allows some interesting extensions to be made. There's also no garbage to worry about being collected, no dynamic types to worry about getting wrong, no memory leaks without plugins, and most of its limitations have been overcome too.