Is python a good choice for this task?

[Cameron Laird]

In article <aqp58f$8pm$1 at peabody.colorado.edu>,
Fernando Pérez  <fperez528 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Ron Lau wrote:
>
>> My question is, What language is best suited for this? Perl, Python, or
>> shell scripts?
>
>Well, from each of the groups you posted to you'll get a different answer. But 
>of course, two of them will be wrong. You should use python :)
>
>Kidding aside, such a simple task can be done in any of those without any 
>effort. I'd still suggest python because it's a better language than the 
>others for a number of things (yes, I've used all three extensively). 
>Especially if you have a scientific computing background: if you poke around 
>the web a bit, you'll find that python is becoming very popular in scientific 
>computing circles, and for good reason. See http://scipy.org/ or  
			.
			.
			.
Yes.

I have a soft spot for Tcl in this role.  I think Tcl's sub-
process spawning is perceptibly easier than the {popen,popen2,
popen3} we most often recommend to newcomers.  Moreover, Tcl
has the slickest Tk integration, so that it's falling-off-a-
log-like for even a beginner to wrap such legacy applications
with a simple GUI <URL:
http://zeus.itworld.com:9000/AppDev/4061/swol-1218-regex/  >.
The December issue of the *C/C++ Users Journal* elaborates
this.

However, I entirely agree with the main conclusions:
* Mr. Lau will be happy wrapping up his old program,
  and, for as thin a layer as he currently wants,
  any of the common languages will do fine.
* Python has the most headroom.
-- 

Cameron Laird <Cameron at Lairds.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://phaseit.net/claird/home.html