Perl Vs Python

[James Kew]

Anand B Pillai wrote:

> The disadvantages I think is probably speed, poor documentation among
> other things. My experience in some hobby apps I have written is that
> python is atleast 10-20% slower than C/C++ and 1-5% slower than Perl.

Personally, that's a price I'm willing to pay for the uses I put Python
to -- a mixture of code generation and validation tools and ad-hoc test data
and image munging tools -- in return for the enormous productivity and
maintainability gains I've experienced since switching from C to Python for
such tools.

I am surprised at how often speed is held up as an large issue: it hasn't
been for me. The tools I write in Python are fast *enough*

> Documentation as such is poor, since we have one or two accredited
> python books out there when compared to scores of Perl books. People (like
> you), rely more on the internet and newsgroups than standard documentation
> for fixing their python related problems.

Maybe there are scores of Perl books because there *need* to be?

I find the standard Library Reference deals with most of my day-to-day
documentation requirements. It's comprehensive, clear, and precise. However,
it tends to answer "what does module X do" questions rather than "how do I
use module X" questions: for those I tend to turn to the online or printed
Cookbook, to the Python Standard Library book, to Google, or to here.

However, I've found this newsgroup most useful for regular doses of
"Pythonic" Zen -- the progression from lumpy new-to-the-language code to
smooth idiomatic code, which it seems is best learnt by osmosis and
experience.

--
James Kew
james.kew at btinternet.com