Python vs. Perl

[Thomas Wouters]

On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 10:25:42AM -0700, Jonathan Gardner wrote:

> I'm not trying to rile anyone up, I just want to have someone show me how 
> Python excels at dictionaries. Frankly, I find python's syntax a bit 
> burdensome and wordy.

You find Python's dict syntax wordy ? Huh ? It's probably the most consise
part of Python (<boast> barring augmented assignment (+=) </boast> :)

Compare:

my %hash = (key => "value", key2 => "value");

(or 
my %hash = ("key", "value", "key2", "value");
or
my $hashref = {key => "value", key2 => "value};
if you prefer)

with:

dict = {"key": "value,", "key2": "value"}

Not much wordier ;) Indexing is similarly similar:

$hash{'key'};

vs

dict['key']

as is getting the list of keys or values:

keys %hash;
values %hash;

vs

dict.keys()
dict.values()

Personally, I find the Python syntax much more readable, especially the dict
literals.

You'll-get-used-to-Python-syntax-yet-ly y'rs, ;)

PS: apologies if my perl examples are flawed... I tried to test them, but
testing gets bothersome if the 'interactive interpreter' (perl -de1) isn't
doing what it should ;-P

-- 
Thomas Wouters <thomas at xs4all.net>

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