On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Nick Rout wrote:
> same with scripting languages, how does a simple (but not dumbed down)
> task compare in bash, perl, python, ruby, zsh, tcl/tk, whatever.
>
> Maybe we should set a programming task and ask people to undertake it in
> their favourite language, with an expanation for the group.
Hmm. I use many different languages for many different purposes.
If you ask me to create a shortcut to run a command with a complex bunch
of arguments and dump the result into a file I would probably go...
========
#!/bin/bash -x
./funnyProg this_arg that_arg > outfile.txt
========
If you ask me to create a very large system with harsh performance
requirement I will do it in C++.
If you ask me to write a mini TCP server would listen to port 9090 and
will respond to connects in some sane way I will go....
=============
#!/usr/bin/ruby -w
require 'socket'
server = TCPServer.new( 'localhost', 9090)
while( session = server.accept) {
session.puts "Hello world"
session.close
}
===================================
If you ask me to compute the frequency distribution of a list of names I
would go....
=======================================
cat file_of_names |\
perl -ne '++$a{$_};END{foreach(keys(%a)){print "$a{$_}\t$_"}}' |\
sort -n
=====================================
If you want me to create a simple GUI form I would create it using
mod_ruby the cgi module.
If you want the second field of a space delimitered table I might go...
awk '{print $2}' < myfile
If you ask me to do a lot of Statistical calculations I would reach for
R http://cran.r-project.org/ or http://www.r-project.org/
or if you wanted numerical / linear algebra stuff GNU Octave is nifty...
for a quick graph gnuplot is good.
I keep my accounts in gnucash.
The very question "Which is the best Language?" misses the huge potential
created by the amazing diversity of Linux.
As Larry Wall of Perl says, "There Is More Than One Way To Do It."
(TIMTOWTDI)
John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
New Zealand
Good Ideas:
Ruby - http://www.ruby-lang.org - The best of perl,python,scheme
without the pain.
Valgrind - http://developer.kde.org/~sewardj/ - memory debugger for
x86-GNU/Linux
Free your books - http://www.bookcrossing.com
Memtest86 - http://www.memtest86.com - Free standalone, excellent memory
tester for PC's.
