Python vs. Perl, which is better to learn?

[Peter da Silva]

In article <m3offy6i7k.fsf at chvatal.cbbrowne.com>,
Christopher Browne  <cbbrowne at acm.org> wrote:
> Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw when peter at abbnm.com (Peter da Silva) would write:
> > In article <m3bsbybdnl.fsf at chvatal.cbbrowne.com>,
> > Christopher Browne  <cbbrowne at acm.org> wrote:
> >> It's probably fair to call C++ the PL/1 of the 1990s;

> > That is HORRIBLY unfair to PL/I.

> Why not?

PL/I's horribly complex, but it's horribly complex because it was trying
to include every feature that anyone wanted without really attempting
to limit its scope. It's possible to learn a subset of the language
without having to deal with the rest.

PL/I was a nasty thing, but it was a traditional nastiness, a well known
old monster like a werewolf or vampire that everyone knows how to deal
with... you stock up on silver bullets and holy water and don't let them
worry you.

C++ is horribly complex because the original design was a more or less
pragmatic scheme to support object oriented programming in a non-object-
oriented language. As shortcomings in that design came to light, they
were patched by creating new features and then inventing new syntaxes
to describe them without conflicting with existing code. Then to try
and simplify things people have developed standard libraries... which
are rather nice in a lot of ways... on top of that. The problem is
that you really do need to understand an awful lot of stuff to understand
that those libraries are really doing.

The original C++ was a really nifty idea like Ratfor was a really nifty
idea. It should have stayed a short term solution, like Ratfor, and been
superceded by better designs as time went on.

> None of that points to any of the _technical_ qualities of the
> languages, but I wasn't pointing at all at technicalities in this
> context...

It's hard to think about C++ without summoning Dread Cthulhu and Id Monsters,
and wishing that the worst you had to deal with were vampires.

-- 
I've seen things you people can't imagine. Chimneysweeps on fire over the roofs
of London. I've watched kite-strings glitter in the sun at Hyde Park Gate.  All
these things will be lost in time, like chalk-paintings in the rain.   `-_-'
Time for your nap.  | Peter da Silva | Har du kramat din varg, idag?    'U`