Re: OT: script languages
On Wed, 2006-08-02 at 08:14 -0400, Roberto C. Sanchez wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 02, 2006 at 08:37:13AM -0300, chiappa@oi.com.br wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I need to write several scripts for file manipulation, for example:
> > change name files, read specific columns and write them in a new file,
> > call fortan programs to read these files, etc. Because I have to learn
> > how to do this, I wonder what scrip language is better: Perl or Phyton?
> > or another one? (no flame war please!)
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >
>
> My view is that you can likely accomplish what you want with bash
> scripting and some command line tools. However, if you want to learn
> another language (which I think is always a good idea), then consider
> Python. It is dead easy to learn (Google for "A Byte of Python") and is
> very robust. For example, after learning even a little Python, you can
> fairly easily read someone else's Python programs. Additionally, Python
> makes it difficult to write bad code. That is, you must actively try to
> write bad code (assuming you already have knowledge of sound software
> development practices). On the other hand, while Perl is also very
> powerful, it makes it hard to good code. That is, even if you have
> knowledge of good software development practices, it is very easy to
> write unreadable and unmaintainable code in Perl. With that said, Perl
> is much more widely used currently than Python. There are many more
> books available on Perl programming than Python programming and there
> are many people out there with Perl experience than with Python
> experience.
>
> Regards,
>
> -Roberto
I don't know Python, but I agree with Roberto about Perl. It is easy,
even encouraged, to write unstructured code in Perl. On the other hand,
it provides quick, compact solutions to common scripting problems.
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