Python vs. Perl, which is better to learn?

[Patrick W]

aahz at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) writes:

> In article <82adrehag0.fsf at acropolis.localdomain>,
> Patrick W  <quitelikely at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> >> 
> >> Why use C# at all?
> >
> >No genuine need of course, but I think there *is* a sizeable sweet
> >spot that lies somewhere between C and Python in terms of abstraction
> >capabilities, speed, coding convenience, etc.
> 
> Please explain this a bit further, because I don't see that sweet spot at
> all.  My experience is until one gets to truly high levels of abstraction
> (such as Python and SQL), one pays so heavily in lack of expressiveness
> combined with grunt work that the sweet spot doesn't really exist.

I've tried to think of examples to support my assumption, but actual
*experience* tends to bear out what you're saying. Perhaps I ought to
scrap the assumption until it asserts itself in reality.

I *was* thinking that there are many situations in which Python is too
slow and C is needlessly tedious. If that were true, a mid-level
language in which you don't have to roll your own simple data
structures or worry about memory management and still get good
performance would be a good thing. But in practice, have I ever
*needed* such a thing? No.

Also, now that I think about it, there will soon be a _much_ nicer way
of extending Python than writing raw C. (I recall that one of two NZ
Pythonistas named Greg has invented an extension language which, at a
glance, looks very nice. The fact that I haven't yet *needed* to try
it out tends to undermine my assumption even more).

So, let me try a different statement, and see whether this too turns
out to be a load of crap ;-)

It would be nice if Python could become a first-class producer or
consumer of .NET components, regardless of which language they're
written in.