Why learn Python ??

[John J. Lee]

"David M. Cook" <davecook at nowhere.net> writes:

> In article <40029dad$0$28706$a729d347 at news.telepac.pt>, Bicho Verde wrote:
[...]
> You could casually pick up enough Python to be useful in a week or so of
> evenings.  
> 
> Perl is not much harder,

It *seems* so when you first learn it...

> but has a lot of "gotchas".

... and they never end!  Ilya Zakharevich (a "Perl God"):

http://www.google.com/groups?threadm=8h8scu%245h2%241%40charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu

In article <8f498v$751$1 at charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>,
  ilya at math.ohio-state.edu (Ilya Zakharevich) wrote:
[...]
> Let me reiterate my current opinion on the topic: the reason for my
> puzzlement (and your trouble) is the difference between Perl as a
> scripting language and Perl as a programming language.  Perl is
> absolutely fine as a scripting language.  Perl is pretty unusable as a
> programming language.
[...]

I'm not sure I'd go quite as far as that, but it's not a million miles
from the truth.  Why saddle yourself with the costs of Perl when
Python demonstrates there are no significant associated benefits?
(I'm talking about "programming" not "scripting" here, using Ilya's
language, though I'd argue Python is just as good for scripting as
Perl)


John