Very, Very Green Python User

[hanumizzle at gmail.com]

I have used Perl for a long time, but I am something of an experimental
person and mean to try something new. Most of my 'work' with Vector
Linux entails the use of Perl (a bit of a misnomer as it is not now a
paid position -- I am not yet even out of K-12), and there a lot of
things I love about it. I can look past a number of misfeatures in
Perl, but I am surprised to see that Python has very few (that I know
of). Most of them are documented here, it would seem:
http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?PythonProblems. Is the Python debugger
fairly stable? The one you get with Perl stinks on ice. More than
anything else, I would like to have a powerful OO environment where I
do not have to worry about the debugger sucking ass.

A couple blemishes I'm concerned about, though:

Python closures are apparently very poor, but from what I can surmise
of the PyGTK2 page, instances of objects are dynamic enough to add new
methods, so you get your callbacks, at least.

Double-underscore methods are rewritten with the class name? That's an
ugly hack, but remember I'm coming from Perl. If the language doesn't
pull many other hijinks, that's OK.

I have plenty of docs and stuff, now I'm just looking for wisdom. As a
seasoned Python user, what do you have to impart?