Python vs. VB

[Brian Rogoff]

On Sun, 23 May 1999, Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> Jason Trenouth <jason at harlequin.co.uk> wrote:
> > > > Who is Scott Raney?
> > > 
> > > oh, just yet another nice guy answering "how to I do
> > > this in language X" questions with "buy my language Y 
> > > instead".  scott's a regular over in comp.lang.tcl land...
> ...
> > I'll cease and desist now if I'm pinning your jerkometer.
> 
> no problem here.  this just reminds me of when some-
> one thrashed Python over at comp.lang.dylan, and I did
> the big mistake of pointing out that Python, in its own
> way, addresses many of the same issues as Dylan:

I believe I am the alleged "thrasher", though I remember the thrashing was 
in response to a "Scott Raneyesque" Python missionary kicking the moribund 
Dylan community. I also remember that the thrashing consisted of me saying
that Python is a scripting language, and that the goal of Dylan was a
language that could be compiled to code whose performance rivaled C. One
of the ways that is done is to provide explicit types. Note that there is
a long running thread here about making Python fast, so I don't believe my 
statements were totally off. Of course any language can be compiled, but 
some languages require superhuman effort to get acceptable compiled
performance, and it does make sense to design languages with compilation
in mind.

I also pointed out that there were other scripting languages *arguably*
better than Python (Perl and Icon come to mind). That doesn't mean I
think they are better, just that a scripting language comparison was
inappropriate on c.l.dylan, and I was peeved, the way you are peeved 
about this Dylan intrusion ;-). 

FWIW Fredrik, I use Python, arguably the best scripting language around. I 
don't recall sending you hate mail, but if any came to you I'm truly
sorry. 

-- Brian