title: Suggestions for an embeddable scripting language for iPhone and Java app?
body: <p>I'm developing an app for iPhone with a Java desktop companion that it synchs to over the network. I'd like to embed a scripting language into both apps so that end users can write scripts that add new behaviours and interact with the object model, and so that I can more rapidly develop some features.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions for this, or anyone done this before and got experiences to share? I'm thinking of something like tcl which I've used in the past, but not tcl itself as I'm not a big fan of the language. </p>
  
  <p>Main criteria are that it should be</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>lightweight as poss (memory usage)</li>
  <li>easy to interface and extend with java and objective-c</li>
  <li>(nice to have) readable/approachable for people with limited programming experience</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>My initial hunch is that I should be using one of python, ruby, or lua. My preference would be ruby, as I already have some experience with it and don't know much about the others. However my main unknown is which of these is easiest to get integrated with iPhone and Java.</p>
  
  <p><em>edit 2: per Jason Coco in the comments, the SDK terms prohibit embedded scripting languages. Checking into this it does indeed seem to, but I read it to preclude dynamic installation and extension only. I would still be interested in answers here, as the agreement doesn't seem to preclude having prepackaged scripts inside the application bundle itself - Apple would still get to vet that code.</em></p>
  
  <p><em>The agreement also seems to allow use of Apples "interpreters"...what are these? Javascript and what else? Any route to use those here?</em></p>