Perl-python regex-performance comparison

[Ivan]

Hello everyone,

I know this is not a direct python question, forgive me for that, but
maybe some of you will still be able to help me. I've been told that
for my application it would be best to learn a scripting language, so
I looked around and found perl and python to be the nice. Their syntax
and "way" is not similar, though.
So, I was wondering, could any of you please elaborate on the
following, as to ease my dilemma:

1. Although it is all relatively similar, there are differences
between regexes of these two. Which do you believe is the more
powerful variant (maybe an example) ?

2. They are both interpreted languages, and I can't really be sure how
they measure in speed. In your opinion, for handling large files,
which is better ?
(I'm processing files of numerical data of several hundred mb - let's
say 200mb - how would python handle file of such size ? As compared to
perl ?)

3. This last one is somewhat subjective, but what do you think, in the
future, which will be more useful. Which, in your (humble) opinion
"has a future" ?

Thank you for all the info you can spare, and expecially grateful for
the time in doing so.
-- Ivan