Perl Vs Python

[Max M]

Steve Holden wrote:

> Python, being more verbose, tends to keep it easier for beginners to
> comprehend the meaning of a program.


I programmed in Perl for a year, after having developed in other 
languages for many years.

I was impressed by the regular expressions in Perl, and used them all 
the time.

But the problem was that I had a really hard time doing relatively 
simple things, like using hash tables and lists. I could never remember 
what kind of punctuation to put in front of my data structures to get to 
a member. Especially with nested data structures of different types.

I thought Python looked fine, but it didn't have integrated regular 
expressions. And it forced me to indent my code with spaces or tabs. 
What was that about?

Well after an especially frustrating experience with Perl I finally had 
enough. So I downloaded Python and tried it out on the same project.

And my problems dissapeared! It was like hosing ice with hot water, or 
getting a new pair of glasses. Everything was so much clearer and 
obvious in Python.

The indentation took me a day to get used to, and then it was second 
nature. It really is NOT an issue.

And surprisingly enough, I rarely use regular expressions any more. 
There are usually simpler and better ways of doing it for most problems.

I would really love to end this story with a happy note, on how I 
started my own company, so that I could make a living programming only 
in Python. Being happy about my work every day. But things rarely goes 
that way.

On the other hand wait a minute ... that is exactly what happened ;-)

-- 

hilsen/regards Max M Rasmussen, Denmark

http://www.futureport.dk/
Fremtiden, videnskab, skeptiscisme og transhumanisme