Eiffel better than Python ?

[Alex Martelli]

"Dublanc, David" <ddublanc at free.fr> wrote in message
news:qRq07.9790$Wc.6458460 at nnrp4.proxad.net...
> What is exactly weak typing ? I believed that Python was weak typing !

Python has dynamic typing, but it's far from weak: it won't turn
int into string, or viceversa, for example, unless you tell it
explicitly.  Perl's penchant for turning numbers into strings and
VV is a good example of weak typing.


> About Visual Basic : My brother (a VB developer :-) thinks that if you
only
> develop on MS platform and for MS platform without speed goal, VB is very,
> very productive !

Apparently Microsoft disagrees from your brother;-), since in the
next release they're making many incompatible changes to the VB
language (almost every one of which, funny enough, takes it closer
to Pyton -- though not quite close enough:-).

> (there are for instance a browser of DLL, so system programming is very
> easy ).

The impressive array of tools that comes with VB _almost_ (but not
quite) makes up for the language deficiencies, which are many (they
will be fewer in next release, since MS is removing some of the most
glaring ones, like the Set vs Let distinction in assignments, the
related concept of 'default attribute' of an object, etc, etc).  In a sense
the situation is close to Java (though Java as a language has fewer
warts than VB, and it ain't so much the tools but the libraries and
frameworks:-).  Into both niches Python fits just great -- you get
to keep using the same libraries and some of the tools AND at the
same time you code in a sane language....!-)


Alex