Re: OT - trivial programming language
On Fri, 21 May 2004 20:33:14 -0400, richard lyons <richard@the-place.net> wrote:
> That makes two votes for Python (the other was off-list). I've had it
> in mind to find time to investigate Python -- so I'll have a go at
> that.
Make that 3 votes. :-) I recently started learning Python. I like
it. It has a very clean syntax.
Bob Proulx makes good points elsewhere in this thread. Whether you
like the indentation as syntax feature is really a matter of
taste. Personally, I am ambivalent about it. On the one hand it makes
code more compact. On the other hand, indentation is easily lost
information, for example when cutting and pasting. Also, I have the
habit in emacs of hitting tab to get code to line up. I've done this
for years, and it is a hard habit to break. Unfortunately it has
disastrous consequences in python code.
Bob says ruby is pretty good, and I believe him. However, libraries
are a make-or-break feature. The nicest language in the world is
useless without comprehensive libraries, and python is up there when
it comes to libraries. I am not sure how ruby compares.
Also, there are a lot of interesting projects forming around python,
eg. boost-python and pyx.
Debian supports python pretty well. All significant free software
projects involving python (that I am aware of) are in Debian. Also,
Debian has a nice Python policy which makes things work well.
Faheem.
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