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If your main goal is to integrate scripting capabilities quickly, with as few distribution dependancies as possible, using one of the languages that was designed for embedding is your best choice. Lua is currently popular and was chosen by blizzard to allow scripting of thier user interface for World of Warcraft.

If, however, you are more interested in using a well supported language with a large community of support, choosing Python, Perl or a similar language might be a better choice for you.

As always, carefully check the license and distribution requirements of the language you choose to make sure they are compatible with the license and distribution you are using for your application.

Much of the documentation and websites related to creating modules for languages and using scripting languages can be difficult to find. Many resources have been collected here, to help you get started.

• SWIG Resources
• General Documentation: The very well put together official documentation for SWIG.
• Perl Resources
• General index of documents related to extending Perl.
• Guide to embedding Perl.
• Ruby Resources
• Guide to extending Ruby.
• PHP Resources
• Guide to extending PHP.
• PHP extension library and documentation.
• Python Resources
• Guide to building Python extensions.
• Guide to embedding Python in another application.
• Blog posting on distributing an application with embedded Python.
• Javascript Resources
• • Guide to the Mozilla spidermonkey javascript engine
• Lua Resources
• Lua Refernce Manual
• Source code documentation: lauxlib contains many useful, undocumented utilities.
• Luabind: A tool for binding classes and objects at runtime to Lua without using a code generator like SWIG.