On Sun, Jun 10, 2001 at 12:57:38AM -0700, Eric wrote:
> I don't know a whole lot of either language, but I
> hear for larger projects Python is great (and actually
> much more suitable/scaleable than Perl), for quick and
> dirty type tasks (sysadmin stuff) Perl can't be beat.
> I guess it depends on if you want to be more of a
> programmer (Python) or a *nix Sys Admin (Perl). Java
> is fairly hot also and is being used in a lot of
> industrial strength middleware, if I have my facts
> straight... (and just to muddy the waters a bit).
> ERic
I think of Perl as C++ on steroids, while Python is more like Java done
right[1]. The complaint that Perl code is often hard to read and maintain is
commonly heard and often justified, while it is rather more rare to encounter
unreadable Python. This is because of a difference in philosophy: perl lets
the programmer do whatever he wants, while python strongly encourages the
programmer to conform to Guido Van Rossum's idea of good programming style.
[1] I'm not a fan of Java, because it seems to combine the hassle of compiled
system-programming languages with the slow execution speed of interpreted
languages. No being a Java user, I may have misconceptions and would welcome
any perspectives from Java users.
--
Henry House
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