Re: bash vs. python scripts - which one is better?
On Aug 10, 2007, at 12:19 AM, Steve Lamb wrote:
Uh, no, fanboi. I never said it had to remain a one liner. In
fact, that
was my point. One liners rarely stay that way. And when you
venture past
your very narrow mindset you find the problems in shell.
And when you venture past yours, you'll find that ALL programming
languages have SERIOUS flaws in them... and that most can get this
particular relatively simple job done, just fine, with fairly similar
amounts of effort by someone who is sufficiently skilled in that
particular language.
In other words, if it takes you only 15 minutes to write something to
do the job in Python, because you enjoy Python, someone else will
also just as easily (to them) write the same program with the same
results in shell, or Perl, or zsh's flavor of "shell" or whatever.
Some other folks can write the thing just as easily and quickly (from
their perspective) in REXX, C, whatever else you can think of -- in
this case, something that can make system calls to the outside heavy-
hitter conversion software that's really doing the hard work.
It doesn't matter -- at all -- what you choose, if you're comfortable
with your choice. Even if you're not good with a particular language
or any language, starting the project and ignoring the constant
clamor of the hoards of people spending their time arguing about
which language is "better", you'll get far more done than they ever
will accomplish.
It's just something for coders (who are human and have different
tastes) to argue incessantly over, and for some to evangelize as
"religion". You appear to have found the God of Python meets your
every need, and you bow down and submit your reverent respect for the
sacrament of Whitespace, as all who follow the Python path, must.
The original poster seemed worried that he only knows a couple of
(perhaps) obscure languages. If those languages can't make system
calls, he'll have to learn something new. But the hardest concept to
pass to folks staring at that mountain is that the underlying
concepts of variables, loops, conditionals, etc etc etc... don't change!
I'll give you one thing Steve, you were one of the only people to
publish code samples. Nicely done on that.
But I truly believe (after watching these debates go on literally for
over a decade in many cases) that the choice of language is personal,
and more a preference than something people can articulate properly
in terms of "better". "Something I like" might be a much better way
to eplain it.
I think it matters little, for such a small and simple program, what
language is used. The OP just needs to try a few and see what they
like.
--
Nate Duehr
nate@natetech.com
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