Python advocacy

[Andrew M. Kuchling]

Paul Prescod <paul at prescod.net> writes:
> O'Reilly asked to publish something I had written for my homepage about
> Python.
> I'm somewhat nervous about the flamage I'll get, but c'est la vie.

Interesting article, and carefully written to avoid *too* much
flamage.  (Which doesn't imply that readers will pick up on it and
avoid flaming you, but at least you tried.)

The observation that "C++ and Perl only make sense if you have a
particular programming background" is a pretty good one.  Doesn't Tcl,
like Perl, bear traces of being Unix shell-inspired.  Even the Python
tutorial bears traces of this, with the very first paragraph giving a
motivating use for Python: translate a really complicated shell script
into Python for more maintainability.  I can't remember the last time
I started out by writing a shell script for some task, and I think few
people reach for the shell unless the task involves only moving files
around.  I have replaced Makefiles with a Python script in the last
year, though.

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/
I think it would be totally inappropriate for me to even contemplate what I am
thinking about.
    -- Don Mazankowski, (Mazankowski was the Canadian Finance Minister for
       most of the 1980s.)