Python compared to other language

[walterbyrd]

On May 18, 2:17 pm, Larry Bates <larry.ba... at websafe.com> wrote:

> Python is Portable - C is probably the only more portable language

Small quibble: IMO, although C runs on many platforms, I don't think C
code is typically portable between platorms. Unless you are doing
something very simple. If you write something with Visual Studio to do
something fairly advanced on Windows, I don't think the same,
unmodified, code will usually run on UNIX, or MS-DOS. Maybe if you use
pure ANSI C, but I don't think many people do that.

I'm just learning Python. FWIW: my opinions about Python:

- good for many things, but probably not the most popular for any one
thing. For example: PHP is more popular for web-dev, Perl is more
popular for sys-admin.

- IMO: the most comparable language to Python, is Perl. Both are
scripting languages. Both are free, multi-platform, and multi-purpose.
Both are also very popular.

- although good for beginners, Python is also used for some very
advanced stuff.

- IMO: people are more likely to switch from Perl, to Python, than the
other way around.

- Python is generally considered to be more readable than Perl, and
thereby, more maintainable.

- I have managed to be fairly productive with Python in a very short
time, if I get good at Python, I think I could be very productive.

- although Python is considered one of the most popular languages,
jobs as  python programmers seem to be very rare. I think Python is
often used as a  tool by people who specialize in other things: data
analysts, scientists, systems administrators, database administrators,
software testers, etc.

- some will tell you that you don't need to know anything about object
oriented development to use Python. But, I don't think you will get
far without some OO.

Just my $0.02