[Tutor] Java and Python (was: Iterators)

[Scot Stevenson]

Hello Danny,

> So, in Java, using the Iterator concept involves a little bit more work:
> the idea is the same, but the execution is just a bit... well, it just
> seems like explicit array indicing would be easier.  *grin*

With no intention of starting a language war (fat chance with this crowd
anyway):

I had actually started out to learn Java when I first got the idea it would
be fun to start programming again, because - well, basically I believed
Sun's sales pitch. I still have the book by Bruce Eckel here that I started
to learn the language with. But after about a half a year or so, I gave up
[no fault of Bruce's, I really liked his style]. Your cranial capacity may
vary, but Java simply doesn't fit my brain, given that programming is not
my day job and I can only do it in fits and bursts. And what is worse, Java
doesn't seem to /stay/ in my brain for very long (but maybe that's because
I don't drink coffee). Python does.

Looking at your Java iterator example brought back that "Huh?" feeling that
I kept having while trying to learn Java. By now, it is simply beyond me
why anybody would bother with the language, unless it's in a Fortranesque
we-got-sixty-million-lines-of-the-stuff-that's-why-buddy situation. To me
as an amateur, the choices seem clear: If you don't care about speed, use
Python, if you do need speed, use C++ or C, and if you need the bytecode,
use Jython. Java would seem to be caught between something that rocks and a
hard case.

Or am I missing something?

Again, I am simply not qualified to judge one language above the other, so
I'm not running around doing one of those Slashdot "Python is better than
Java - so there!" things here. This is just an amateur's personal
experience...


Y, Scot


-- 
  Scot W. Stevenson -- scot@possum.in-berlin.de -- Zepernick, Germany