From Perl to Python: restructuring a HPC workflow

[Chris Angelico]

On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 10:29 PM, neurino <lelli.luca at googlemail.com> wrote:
> We are a small group of people (approx. 10), working separetely on their own
> projects (each employee manages approx. 2-3 projects). We deal with high
> loads of data everyday.
>
> This workflow has been flawless now for at least 15 years. New generations
> of employees have been given Perl scripts and they developed the tools
> further.

I would recommend making sure the tools can all interoperate
regardless of language, and then you can change any one at any time.
Chances are that's already the case - working with stdin/stdout is one
of the easiest ways to do that, for instance. With a structure that
lets anyone use any language, you can then switch some of your things
to Python, and demonstrate the readability advantages (which would you
rather code in, pseudocode or line noise?). Make the switch as smooth
as possible, and people will take it when it feels right.

ChrisA