Comparison: HTTP with Java, Perl or Python

[Ingo Linkweiler]

>
>
>Please don't generalize or conclude much from this.
>Different languages manage "run-time libraries" in
>different ways.
>
Yes, I agree. This is only one EXAMPLE, showing script languages and 
especially python CAN have shorter and better readable source.
This example is very short and to simple for a full review of Python.
A better comparision of languages can be found here: 
http://www.ipd.uka.de/~prechelt/Biblio/jccpprtTR.pdf

If you are interested, we can make a second comparison with a greater 
example and a more specific test condition.

Script languages are often used to solve very simple problems.
Perhaps this can be a better test, it can be solved within a half hour 
with all languages:

Input: An URL, a local dirctory
Task1: recursive download of all jpg-files to local directory from the 
given url, including all sub-URLs (but not links to other sites)
File name of first image in local directory: pic00001.jpg and so on.

or this one:
Task2: Create a "map" of all links: Make a list of all found local links 
and links to other sites (bot do not follow links to other URLs).
Output should be written in a HTML-file "map.htm".


For comparison:
- Time for coding
- Time for testing and debugging
- Number of changes during debugging
- Lines of Code / Packed bytes (without comments)
- Is code readable by a programmer who not has used the language before?

Are you interested? Any suggestions?
We need at least 2 programmers for each language (Python, Perl, Java, TCL)

Ingo