[Tutor] basic Qs

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

> which books OR docs to refere ??
> ( i am not new to programming but new to Python )

In that case try Beasley's Essential Python Reference
or Mark Lutz Programming Python.
If you are on Windows try Mark Hammonds Win32 Python book(O'Reilly)

> which editor / IDE is best for Python ??

The one that works for you. I use IDLE sometimes and vim mostly.

> i would also like to know the performance comparison between following
> - shell scripts
> - perl
> - PYTHON

Perl and Python will nearly always beat a shell script

A fast Perl program translated line by line to Python will usually
show Perl to be fastest.

A fast Python program translated to Perl may show Python to be fastest.

A basic problem implemented optimally in either language will be similar 
in performance in most cases (certainly within an order of magnitude, 
usually within a factor of 2).

[ IMHO It's probably easier to convert bottlenecks in Python to C for real 
  performance when necessary than it is in Perl. But with SWIG to help
that's 
  maybe not such a big issue... ]

> in terms of memory requirement, 

About the same so far as I can tell.

Alan g.
Author of the Learn to Program website
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/