[Tutor] Learning python as a thing to do

[Greg T]

Hi,
I am a Rubyist, but I've decided to learn Python so
that when a conversation springs up about the merits
of the two languages amd how they compare, I will be
well informed. As it stands now, what you usually see
is people well versed in one or the other, making
generalizations when they dont really know the other
language.

At any rate, so far Python seems to be a very good
language. Not a great language, but still very good.

So far, some things I dont care for and have me
scratching my head:
immutable strings
no case statement
lack of internal iterators
The mixing of functions and methods

Some things that I like:
-list comprehensions
-the indentation scheme (I know alot of people dont
like
it at first experience, but I do)
-'one way to do it' philosophy (I dont have a problem
with 'more than one way to do it', but it makes a
language easier to learn with a 'one way' philosophy)

Question(s):
Are there any good books/documents that actually
examine the ruby way vs python way? (by someone that
knows both languages)

The other day I saw a post from a gentleman trying to
do a basic prompt and add type of calculator.
He wanted to assign the +, or * operator to a variable
to use, but I believe he was told you have to use the
literal +, or *.

Are these operators constanst in Python?
If so, is there not a way to send that constant to
act apon another variable or variables that refer to
numbers?

In ruby, you can rerence the * operator
operator = :*   
num1 = 4
num2 = 6
num1.send(operator,num2)
which returns 24

Have a nice day :-)



		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250