Why use Python when we've got Perl?

[Gary O'Keefe]

A keyboard was whacked upside David Oppenheimer's head and out came:

>I don't quite understand the relevance of this entire Perl advocacy string
>here.  If Xah thinks that getting mean responses to postings (especially
>postings from newbies) is so very cool, then why waste time over here doing
>postings to the Python newsgroup.  I must say that in most newsgroups I have
>found people friendly and helpful.  If I were to post to a newsgroup and get
>flamed for not knowing anything or given obviously incorrect information just
>to piss me off, I'd never go back.  It would not generate feelings of
>advocacy for me.  Who the hell wants to have some intellectual elitist
>assholes tell you you're ignorant just for asking a question?!

Python is a language that you hear about after conversing with
knowledgeable people, a language recommended by experts to the keen
computer scientist -- I've always thought of Python, perhaps unfairly,
as being the language for those people interested in language design
as an end in itself. But, one way or another, this makes for edifying
conversation between educated people.

Perl on the other hand is the first language anyone even vaguely
interested in putting together an interactive web-server hears about.
That means EVERY DUMBASS IN THE UNIVERSE who wants to put their cock
on the internet and have you virtually stroke it but, importantly,
can't be bothered to actually learn all this computer bullshit posts
to comp.lang.perl.misc.

If your newsgroup (that you'd just paid to download) was filled with
posts like this:

> Subject: [newbee] I am too damn lazy - can't you do this for me?
>
> hay gurus
>
> Im starting up an intractive cock-stroking website
> (http://www.cockstroke.com/). Its going 2 B KEWL!!!
>
> But I NEED A CGI TO MAKE IT WORK!!!
>
> Can you supr-clever gurus write me something??!! It woudnt take
> you any time and ITD B GRATE!!!
>
> THX
> 
> Newbee

then your patience would vapourise, just like ours.

Gary

The newbee post above and any mentioned websites are purely fictional.
Any similarity to a real newbee, (living or dead) or website are
purely co-incidental.

<NOT SERIOUS>
p.s. I've got a great idea: let's teach those smug python bastards a
lesson by re-directing all the newbees to comp.lang.python. Tell them
it's the latest, greatest, thing for developing their CGI scripts.
Tell them its was designed to be easy to write and maintain and it's
built-from-the-ground-up object model is the toast of the town in the
deevelopment community. Tell them all that perl stuff is old-fashioned
and we're only here on cplm out of a sense of nostalgia and as a
favour to the usenet community, redirecting the ignorant newbees to
the python promised land. Tell them that clp is much friendlier and
they DON'T HAVE FAQS, so the newbees'll never get told to RTFF or
FOAD.

We'll see how fast their bottle fills, then.
<\NOT SERIOUS>
--
Gary O'Keefe
gary at onegoodidea.com

You know the score - my current employer has nothing to do with what I post