Python versus Perl ?

[Caleb Hattingh]

Hi Surfunbear

I don't know about the stuff regarding jobs, resumes, etc, but I will tell  
you the same thing I tell everyone I meet regarding python:

Set aside a morning, and work through the python tutorial that comes with  
the documentation.  People like me are going to tell you this and that,  
perhaps try to convince of our particular world-view, and so on.

By the end of the tutorial (more likely at halfway) you will probably know  
whether this is worth pursuing or not.  Oh, and do this before you invest  
too much time in Perl :)

Keep well
Caleb

On 6 Feb 2005 05:19:09 -0800, <surfunbear at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>  I've read some posts on Perl versus Python and studied a bit of my
> Python book.
>
>  I'm a software engineer, familiar with C++ objected oriented
> development, but have been using Perl because it is great for pattern
> matching, text processing, and automated testing. Our company is really
> fixated on risk managnemt and the only way I can do enough testing
> without working overtime (which some people have ended up doing) is by
> automating my testing. That's what got me started on Perl.
>
>  I've read that many people prefer Python and that it is better than
> Perl. However, I want to ask a few other questions.
>
>
> 1. Perl seems to have alot of packaged utilities available through
> CPAN, the comprehensive perl network. These can aid in building
> parsers, web development, perl DBI is heavily used. This seems to be a
> very important benifit. I'm not sure that Python is as extenive at all
> in that regard ? Perl also has excellent pattern matching compared to
> sed, not sure about how Python measures up,
>  but this seems to make perl ideally suited to text processing.
>
> 2. Python is apparantly better at object oriented. Perl has some kind
> of name spacing, I have used that in a limited way. Does Perl use a
> cheap and less than optimal Object oriented approach ?
> That was what someone at work said, he advocates Python.
> Is it likely that Perl will improve it's object oriented features
> in the next few years ?
>
> 3. Perl is installed on our system and alot of other systems.
> You don't have to make sys admins go out of there way to make it
> available. It's usualy allready there. I also did a search of job
> postings on a popular website. 108 jobs where listed that require
> knowledge of Perl, only 17 listed required Python. Becomeing more
> familiar with Perl might then be usefull for ones resume ?
>
>
>
>  If Python is better than Perl, I'm curious how really significant
> those advantages are ?
>