UserLinux chooses Python as "interpretive language" of choice

[Ville Vainio]

"John Roth" <newsgroups at jhrothjr.com> writes:

> > > a third is the ability to forget the empty parenthesis after
> > > a function/method call that doesn't require parameters.

> > Doesn't this suck big time? How can the interpreter tell whether you
> > are trying to call a function or just want a reference to a callable
> > object?

> That's the crux of the implementation issue, and I, for one,
> haven't got an answer that doesn't look real ugly (let alone
> break backwards compatability.) That's why I'm not pushing
> this particular issue seriously - I don't see a way of doing it,
> given the rest of Python, and completely independently of any
> "Python philosophy" issues.

Most importantly, why would anyone even care? Ability to optionally
invoke a "call" operation on an object implicitly seems utterly
worthless to me. It has the feel of perl philosophy (regexps in
language syntaxm anyone? ), and it's not the only instance in Ruby. I
don't really like the Perl philosophy (like most of the people who
"get" Python), and I don't really believe a language whose designers
appreciate the perlisms poses a serious threat to Python. Not even if
they got some things right.

> to Python. Maybe the fact that such industry heavy hitters as Robert
> Martin, David Thomas, and any number of others have switched

Frankly, I don't know who these "heavy hitters" are, but they probably
have their reasons. Quick googling didn't turn out any useful articles
explaining why either of them has switched from Python to Ruby.

> As far as doing the "right" thing, check the partial list of Ruby
> features I gave, and ask yourself how much each of them would
> break the "feel" of Python.

I am yet to see a feature list that would inspire me to switch, or
even consider switching. The little advantages Ruby has over Python
are dwarfed by the advantages of Python (of which the least is not
maturity, community and documentation).

-- 
Ville Vainio   http://www.students.tut.fi/~vainio24