Kenneth Burgener wrote: > Alex Esplin wrote: >> While it's true that you can write clean, easy-to-understand and >> maintain code in Perl, it takes more effort to do so than in Python. >> While it's also true that you can script anything in Python that you >> can in Perl, sometimes Perl's backtick (``) operator and built-in >> regex capabilities make it a lower-friction interface to automating >> system scripts. > > I agree with Alex on the power of Perl. > > > I like to think of the transition like this: (depending on the size of > script I need) > Bash - Perl - Python
I second this. If Bash is sufficient, then let it do the job. It's particularly well-suited to string commands together, farming the real work to find, xargs, grep, cut, sort, and sed. I occasionally use make to organize such scripts, but only when called for. If you happen to know awk, feel free to use it, but at that point I usually skip to perl. My latest Perl experience has actually been a one-liner from a shell script, using the convenient -p, -e, and -i flags. Where Perl shines is single-file scripts that process a bunch of text input, calling system commands if necessary. Its huge win over bash+sed is structured variables. Its win over Python is terse syntax for system calls, regular expressions, logic shortcuts, and line-wise reading. A mature module in CPAN will tempt me, though I haven't always had the best experience installing them. Python is great for standalone programs, particularly if a set of programs can share logic via subroutines. I routinely use its built-in modules for data migrations, and XML processing. It has worked well for me as a server for a project-specific protocol. PyPI has almost as much reach as CPAN, with virtualenv and easy_install making it even more convenient to use, when they work. However, Python is in the middle of a major version transition, and not all modules are available in each branch; the expected longevity of your scripts may also determine which version you decide to learn. Speaking of which, does anyone here really expect to use Perl 6? For systems programming, a great library of Python generator functions could come in very handy, but in some ways is the deep end of the pool for really learning the language. The good news is that it's easy to pick up the rest as soon as you need it. > By the way, this transition logical also works for web development. I > like PHP for easy of use and quick development time. I like Perl for > sys admin stuff, but I would never use it for web development (even > though PHP is descended from Perl). For large enterprise applications, > Java and other tools may be more appropriate. PHP is fantastic for a simple dynamic page. I've used it for larger applications, but I keep missing Python features that simply make it better for anything significant. Namespaces come to mind, as do first-class functions... - Eric /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
