On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 5:29 AM, Chris Rebert <c...@rebertia.com> wrote: > On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 5:05 AM, Samuel Williams > <space.ship.travel...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Dear Friends, >> >> I'm looking for some help from the Python community. I hope this is the >> right place to ask for information. >> >> I'm putting together a website aimed at high school students and teachers, >> and would like to make sure the following page is as good as possible: >> http://programming.dojo.net.nz/languages/python/index >> In particular, "Why would I learn this language?" section needs to have a >> few paragraphs. I don't use Python predominantly so I hoped that you could >> provide the main reasons why Python is a language someone would want to >> learn about. <snip> > - A very clean syntax and elegant design, compared to other languages
Also, I take issue with your classifying Python as orange with regard to "Is the general syntax simple and concise?" on http://programming.dojo.net.nz/resources/programming-language-comparison/index Python's syntax is at least as simple, if not simpler, than Ruby's, which you rate as green. Ruby may be /slightly/ more concise than Python in certain cases due to its Perl influences, but those instances of specialized syntax also make it more complex. To wit, I refer you to http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dyugd_KlqvcJ:blog.nicksieger.com/articles/2006/10/27/visualization-of-rubys-grammar+ruby+grammar+visualization&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us Note the complexity of the graph for Ruby's grammar. By comparison, here is the same graph for Python (generated from a file linked to in the post's comment thread): http://rebertia.com/images/python_grammar_graph.png (Disclaimer: Neither of the graphs are current.) Additionally, you rate Python orange but Perl green for "Does the language provide a useful and consistent set of object oriented constructs?". Could you explain your reasoning for this? While neither Python nor Perl have the level of object-oriented purity of Ruby or Smalltalk, my understanding is that short of using CPAN libraries for Perl or dealing in Perl 6, Perl and Python have a substantially similar object model, so I don't how Python could rate below Perl in this area. Cheers, Chris -- http://blog.rebertia.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
