On Mar 18, 2024, at 5:17 PM, Andrew Rowley <and...@blackhillsoftware.com> wrote:
Why Python? I know it's the latest hot language, but what advantages does it have over e.g. Java (well established on z/OS)? The context here was using Python in place of REXX. It’s a scripting language, meaning you can just write your text file and then run it, without compiling or linking or such. I have looked into it a few times, but get as far as "significant indentation" and "no variable declarations" and decide it's not something I want to use. Is it a sign of weakness to ask the compiler to help me avoid bugs? You get used to the “significant indentation” thing pretty quickly. It really makes sense: you should be indenting blocks anyway to make them easy to read, so why clutter things up with braces or keywords? Most scripting languages (including REXX) don’t require declaring variables. Since there’s no separate compile step you get the errors when they happen in any case, so declaring variables doesn’t buy you much. Python allows me to mix object-oriented and functional programming, it doesn’t require a lot of “ceremony”, and it makes it easy to write short but readable programs. -- Curtis Pew ITS Campus Solutions curtis....@austin.utexas.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
