[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] [Fwd: ANNOUNCE: perlDL v1.00 - the 'perl Data Language']

[Paul Barrett]

I was wondering how you, David Ascher, became aware of PerlDL?

I was made aware of it at the Astronomical Data Analysis and Software
Systems Conference (ADASS VI) in Charlottesville, VA in late
Sept. '96. An annual conference sponsored by the American Astronomical
Society.  I spoke with one of the implementors about PerlDL and
Python, encouraging them to abandon PerlDL in favor of Python.  I
guess they ignored my advice.

In fact, a friend and I sponsored a Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) session
at this conference about interactive data languages.  I advocated
Python as the language of choice, basically as a free version of IDL
and described its merits and potential.  The PerlDL people were there,
so they should have some idea of Pythons merits for numerical
analysis.

I have a rough draft of a table comparing all the languages and data
analysis enviromments that I'm currently aware of.  It's located at
the following URL:

http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/barrett/IDAE/table.1.html

It is still in the early stages of construction, since gathering so
much information about two dozen languages takes alot of time, more
than I have at the moment.  Any comments or suggestions about the
table are welcome.  It is intended to be an objective comparison, but
hopefully one will notice that Python is one of the frontrunners in
this category.

Paul

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Paul Barrett  -  Astrophysicist  -  Universities Space Research Association |
|                 Compton Observatory Science Support Center                  |
| NASA/Goddard SFC     phone: 301-286-1108           "Cracking toast, Gromit" |
| Code 660.1,          FAX:   301-286-1681            says Wallace.           |
| Greenbelt,MD 20771   barrett@compass.gsfc.nasa.gov  (in The Wrong Trousers) |
|             http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/barrett/CV.html              |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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