One of the things that makes a language useful is a large library. You can start using, e.g., Ada, C++, Java, LaTeX, ooRexx, Perl, Python, with only a handful of packages, and look for others as the need arises.
BTDT,GTTS -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Farley, Peter <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 7:01 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Rexx numeric digits and scientific notation question IMHO the learning curve for Java and all the libraries you have to know and understand to make it at all useful far outweighs its presumptive establishment in the z/OS ecosystem. Again IMHO Python is intended to be a scripting language and as such it shares much design philosophy with Rexx and awk and other scripting languages that are primarily interpreted rather than compiled like Java. Mind you I am not in love with the “significant indentation” syntax (far too easy to make a structural mistake), but it takes a much smaller learning curve to deal with that then learning and remembering all of the lengthy Java library names you need to know to do anything useful (in reverse hierarchical order no less, most significant qualifier at the end of every “name”? really? Whose bright idea was that?). Personally I welcome having Python available by default on z/OS (which isn’t here yet for most shops, but hopefully will be soon), along with all the other open source programs and utilities being actively ported to z/OS. The really tricky part of letting programmers use Python is how do they get the necessary non-standard libraries for themselves? I suspect most large shops will, in the name of “security”, prevent open access to the PyPi library repository, and no doubt highly control it in a bureaucratic snarl, with the actual breadth of available packages highly restricted to only those libraries that are “approved for use” in a locally maintained private repository. Sad to say, I can see the bureaucratic delays to get access to a library piling up already. As has been said many times before: “You can’t win, you can’t break even, and you can’t get out of the game. That’s Life.” Peter From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Andrew Rowley Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 6:18 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Rexx numeric digits and scientific notation question On 16/03/2024 11:17 am, David Crayford wrote: > IBM and ISVs are working on Python APIs for products right now. And they will > be better than the REXX versions. Why Python? I know it's the latest hot language, but what advantages does it have over e.g. Java (well established on z/OS)? I have looked into it a few times, but get as far as "significant indentation" and "no variable declarations" and decide it's not something I want to use. Is it a sign of weakness to ask the compiler to help me avoid bugs? -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
