Python vs. Perl

[Rob Nikander]

In article <mailman.990569132.16898.python-list at python.org>, "Jonathan
Gardner" <gardner at sounddomain.com> wrote:

> am going to miss a lot of the C features that I live and die by (while
> (a = getc())), and I am going to miss the "do this or die unless that"
> aspect of Perl. What does Python have that makes it so great? Why should
> I spend time to become intimate with it? I am looking for comments from
> people that actually have used Perl or C/C++ extensively, and I am
> looking for comments that go beyond the FAQ.

I haven't used much Perl, but there is a huge difference from C/C++
because you can do dynamic stuff like:

str = getCommandFromSomewhere()
exec str

Where str is a string of actual python code.  That is basically
impossible in C/C++.  This may not mean much in certain apps, but for 
something I was coding the other day, this ability (which is also present
in Lisp, Perl and other interpreted languages) was much-needed.

Also, I love doing things like:

x, y, width, height = obj.getDimensions()

assigning 4 variables at once because the function returns a tuple.  But
maybe you can do that in Perl too... probably.

My impression was that Perl's OO was a little ugly, so if you are a
object guy, you will like Python better.  Python is the cleanest, most
convenient language I have ever come across. 

Rob