advice for perl expert wanting to learn python

[Harry George]

David Fraser <davidf at sjsoft.com> writes:

> Zeljko Vrba wrote:
> > Now, why would I like to learn Python: because of IronPython port to CLR.
> > Perl port to CLR doesn't seem to be coming soon. First Perl6 for Parrot has
> > to be written, and then other backends..
> > What's the easiest way of learning python knowing perl? 

For experienced scripters, I find Beazley's "Python Essential
Reference" is excellent.  You already know what you want, just need to
see how Python does it, and don't need a lot of handholding.  Get a
copy of "Python Cookbook" too, and scan that.  Then rewrite one of
your exsiting perl scripts.

> > Is there
> > somewhere
> > a 'how-to' cookbook with parallel examples of frequent idioms in perl and
> > python?

An interesting variant on that is my pyperlish module, at
http://www.seanet.com/~hgg9140/comp/index.html

You can either use it as-is, or read the code to see how to emulate
perl in python.  NOTE: I do not recommend using pyperlish once you get
the hang of python.


> > And most important thing, how does Python deal with database
> > connectivity?
> > Is there a single API (akin to DBI) for connecting to databases?
> > How does Python support the following databases:
> > - Oracle
> > - Postgres
> > - MySQL
> > - SQLServer (maybe using freetds?)
> > - ODBC connectivity (connecting to MS Access)
> >
> 
> I have used Oracle, SQLServer and Access via ADO - try adodpapi.sf.net
> which is a wrapper for ADO to the Python DB-API.
> But note that you may well not be able to use any of this database
> stuff from IronPython
> 
> David

More cross-platform and cross-DBMS is to code to the DB-API 2.0:
http://www.python.org/topics/database/

-- 
harry.g.george at boeing.com
6-6M21 BCA CompArch Design Engineering
Phone: (425) 342-0007