How to justify using a scripting language as part of a project

Question

I have a specific project in which I want to use either a scripting language + C, or as an alternative a 100% Java solution.

The program adapts a legacy system for use with other moderns systems.

Basically, I have few choices as to what language I can use. I have C/C++, Java 1.4, and I have also compiled the Lua for this environment.

The program does 'screen scraping' and has to deal with alot of strings. That part of the code is highly variable.

Most of the developers at my company use C, so - my original design was to write some portions in C, and use Lua for the part that dealt with strings and changed freqently. I was told 'You have to justify your use of the scripting language.' So i reworked my design using 100% Java, and was told - Java wont have enough performance. You should do the whole thing in C.

I'm not controlling lasers or doing image processing - just some screen scraping. I still have to provide justification for using anything but C - so what justification can I provide?

Answer 1

Evaluate how much time (time==money$) each solution will take. That should help.

Answer 2

You could hack a prototype in some thing like Perl, Python or other script language and show off how easy and fast it can be done.