Perl Vs Python

[Tim Peters]

[Terry Reedy]
> Say what you want, I believe Python and Perl were both developed about
> the same time, around 1990.  Perl became famous sooner because it
> filled a 'hot' new web nitch -- that of writing CGI programs.

They were close, but a usable Perl came out well before a usable Python.
Before Python 0.9.6 (released in April of 1992), Guido was still making some
major backward-incompatible syntax changes (for example, '=' used to be used
for equality testing as well as assignment -- search your Python
distribution for eqfix.py).  When Guido made such a change, he'd release a
script at the same time to rewrite programs to use the new syntax (c.f.
eqfix.py).  When I got wind of them in advance, I'd send him a Perl script
to do the same thing, and tease him about how much faster and shorter the
Perl version was.

This didn't give him a case of Perl Envy, though:  he couldn't read the Perl
I sent him, and I barely could either.  I think instead it intensified his
conviction that the world needed Python (and I encouraged him in that
charming delusion <wink>).