why isn't python more popular?

[Thomas Wouters]

On Mon, Aug 14, 2000 at 12:17:01AM -0600, bowman wrote:

> > Python is a lot more like C, except for the indentation thing. And if you
> > wish, you can use washboard-using women (#{ and #}) in addition to the
> > indentations, to make it much more like C. Python has largely the same
> > symbols and operators (and semantics, for basic types) as C, whereas Perl
> > binds as much as three or four different meanings to the same character.

> that's why I keep get error messages about !, +=, ++, --, and switch
> constructs when I use Python after a stint of C.

Well, yes. (Though the += one will be fixed in 2.0 <wink>) But at least you
get *errors*, and not silently different behaviour (or perhaps a warning if
you ask the interpreter reeeeeeeeeeeaally nice.) How long did it take you to
recognize those warnings for what they were, and use the right Python
constructs ?

Contrast that with the 3 hours it took me to figure out why a 'return 0' in
a subroutine 'beeble' in Perl caused a warning: use of undefined value, on
the line calling 'beeble'.

And-after-the-three-hours-I-*still*-didn't-know--I-just-gave-up-ly y'rs,
-- 
Thomas Wouters <thomas at xs4all.net>

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