> Thanks! Well, my name is Andrew and like I said before I am just beginning > to teach myself Python. Currently I am a research scientist doing > infectious disease research. My research revolves around next generation > sequencing...so I generate lots of data. Aside from working on databases > (for fun), I really want to teach myself a scripting language to let me be > more self-sufficient when it comes to data analysis. I have done a little > perl, but it is really cryptic and I really enjoy how python "reads" if that > makes any sense.
It makes oodles and oodles of sense: as I understand it, "readability," i.e., closeness-to-human language (or at least English) has always been one of the foundational guiding principles underlying the development of the Python language; it's certainly one of the simplest things us partisans can point to in support of our partisanship. DG -- In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. - Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP address
