Should I learn Python or Java?

[Martijn Faassen]

Joseph T. Adams <joe at apk.net> wrote:
[snip]
> Smalltalk is far more similar to Java than to Python, so this may make
> Java feel a little more familiar for you.

This I don't believe is true; Smalltalk is far more similar to *Python*
than to Java. Syntaxwise, Smalltalk is as different from Java as it
is from Python, and the semantics of dynamic typechecking is far
more like Python than like than like statically-typed Java.
The one aspect where Java and Smalltalk are more similar is that both
have the tendency to isolate themselves into Java-only and Smalltalk-only
environments, instead of focusing on interoperability. Oh, and another
similarity between Java and Smalltalk is a focus on OO everywhere,
where Python is more paradigm agnostic -- but the way they
try to accomplish it is quite different; Java basic types are not
really objects as far as I know, for instance, whereas Python's are
(with some restrictions).

So why do you say Smalltalk is far more similar to Java than to Python?

Regards,

Martijn
-- 
History of the 20th Century: WW1, WW2, WW3?
No, WWW -- Could we be going in the right direction?