List Processing Capabilities

[jerry_spicklemire at my-deja.com]

In article <8pkoou0fle at news1.newsguy.com>,
  "Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Not to say you _can't_ do these things in Python -- you can, and
> pretty well too.  But, there are even-better tools for them.  And,
> no good craftsperson limits himself or herself to one single tool;
> rather, a panoply of tools must be mastered, as well as the skill
> to choose the right combination of tools for any given task...
>
> Alex

Hi Alex, and others,

Just to say that this sentiment is valid, and undeniable,
but I'm stuck here in the "real world". It seems that many
places employing programmers have an existing toolset and
are "unsupportive" of the use of alternatives (or even the
suggestion . . .).

The current designee appears to be Java, and so coders
will be expected to deliver the universe according to Java,
regardless of suitability.

As we all know, Python really is a language that can do
many things very well, and has benefits such as simplicity
and clarity, which leads to ease of learning & maintenance,
and is available on many OS and hardware platforms. So,
it seems to me that in a world of defacto "winners", the
first and most important job is to make sure that a
language like that is adopted as the tool of choice.

Otherwise we could easily find ourselves trying to code
the next generation of software in a language left over
from some hardware company's failed "set-top-box project.
Or worse, some software company's counterattack strategy
against the former!

Whether-or-not-they-are-the-best-tools-for-the-job-ly,

Jerry S.


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