Is this a good time to start learning python?

[Gabriel Genellina]

En Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:40:40 -0300, Rui Maciel <rui.maciel at gmail.com>  
escribió:

> Recently I woke up inclined to take up the task of learning another
> programming language. I've already dipped my toes in Perl (I've read  
> online
> tutorials and wrote a couple of irrelevant pet projects) but, as the
> computers at my workplace only sport the python interpreter, it probably
> means that learning python will end up serving me better, at least in the
> short run. Plus, you know how Perl goes.
>So far the decision seems to be a no brainer. Yet, Python 3000 will  
> arrive
> in a few months. As it isn't backwards compatible with today's Python,
> there is the risk that no matter what I learn until then, I will end up
> having to re-learn at least a considerable part of the language. To put  
> it
> in other words, I fear that I will be wasting my time.

Don't be scared by the "backwards incompatible" tag - it's the way to get  
rid of nasty things that could not be dropped otherwise. The basics of  
Python will continue to be the same, it's not a new, different language;  
learning Python 2.X isn't a waste of time.
Python 3 won't be in widespread use until some (long?) time, and some  
people won't ever consider it until Python 3.1 arrives; so Python 2.X will  
continue being used for a long time.

-- 
Gabriel Genellina