Re: What's the best way to learn perl for a python programmer?
vj wrote: I've been given a project which requires writing scripts that need to be run on over 3000 servers. Only about 15% of them have python installed on them. While all/most of them will have perl. I'll try and do as much as possible in pexpect but am sure I'll have do some significant perl. Any suggestions on what is the best way to get upto speed on perl? The thing that really bit me when I tried to go back to Perl after years with Python was dereferencing. Completely obvious things in Python, such as extracting an element from a list inside a dict in another list felt like black magic. I actually gave up, but later I realized that there is an entire chapter in Programming Perl about the stumbling blocks with dereferencing in Perl. I don't think people in this group :) will disagree if I claim that Python software is much more maintainable and easier to develop and debug than Perl scripts. That's probably relevant if they are to run on thousands of servers. I'd make a real effort to investigate if it's possible to either install Python on all boxes or use something like cx_Freeze to make executables out of the scripts. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What's the best way to learn perl for a python programmer?
Magnus Lycka [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The thing that really bit me when I tried to go back to Perl after years with Python was dereferencing. Completely obvious things in Python, such as extracting an element from a list inside a dict in another list felt like black magic. Not that long ago I had to make some enhancements to someone else's Perl script which was handling that kind of data structure. I stared and stared at a particularly long and messy dereference, and eventually figured out what it was doing. I then wrote what the equivalent Python would have been. Even forgiving the Perl's initial my, thanks to the line noise characters the Python was over 10% shorter, as well as more readable. So much for the myth of verbosity. -- \S -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://www.chaos.org.uk/~sion/ ___ | Frankly I have no feelings towards penguins one way or the other \X/ |-- Arthur C. Clarke her nu becomeþ se bera eadward ofdun hlæddre heafdes bæce bump bump bump -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What's the best way to learn perl for a python programmer?
Hello vj
I'll try and do as much as possible in pexpect but am sure I'll have do
some significant perl. Any suggestions on what is the best way to get
upto speed on perl?
Perl is (imho) much more complex and
somehow more powerful than Python
(if you can handle it) - it has more
development iterations behind it plus
a large contibuting community - and
their bear's den (CPAN) -- which
will probably save your project some-
times from debris falling around you.
BUT! There is no problem in using
a subset of Perl (called Baby-Perl)
that allows you translating your
Perl Scripts to Python by omitting $$
and { }, replace 'sub' by 'def'
(plus some minor modifications).
There is a nice comparison on Python
and Perl available on the Web, which gave
me a good laugh for more than 30 seconds ;-))
http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.20.165434.32.html
(too bad - most responders didn't get the point of it)
Regards,
M.
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What's the best way to learn perl for a python programmer?
The online docs are very good. Just run perldoc perl, and then go through the various tutorial pages (starting with perldoc perlintro). You can also read them online here: http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.html . Then go to http://www.perlmonks.org . They have many tutorial-style articles there, as well as a very helpful and knowledgeable community. If you absolutely need to write object-oriented Perl, you probably want to keep things as simple as possible and just use regular old hash-based objects. Writing OO Perl code is a whole nuther ball of wax than just writing procedural Perl code. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What's the best way to learn perl for a python programmer?
vj wrote: I've been given a project which requires writing scripts that need to be run on over 3000 servers. Only about 15% of them have python installed on them. While all/most of them will have perl. I used to work for a company with hundreds of development workstations and build/test servers, different operating systems (add to the mixture regular disk failures and regular hiring of new people). Everything was controlled by pretty big perl scripts and people who maintained all the tools found that using perl from distributions was a hassle because of differences between perl versions and the need to install it if OS doesn't have it. So they just built several (for different OSes/archetectures) relocatable distributions of perl and put them on a network drive. That turned out to be more reliable and more easy to maintain. You can do the same with python. I'll try and do as much as possible in pexpect but am sure I'll have do some significant perl. Any suggestions on what is the best way to get upto speed on perl? Forget about perl :) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What's the best way to learn perl for a python programmer?
vj [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I've been given a project which requires writing scripts that need to be run on over 3000 servers. Only about 15% of them have python installed on them. While all/most of them will have perl. I'll try and do as much as possible in pexpect but am sure I'll have do some significant perl. Any suggestions on what is the best way to get upto speed on perl? Writing to c.l.perl is a good start... Perl has very good docs. IMHO, they're better than Python's, specially for the examples. Also, starting with a book like Learning Perl is not bad and it might save you a lot of time with the basics and the semantics of the language. c.l.perl is very receptive and helpful. -- Jorge Godoy [EMAIL PROTECTED] Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur. - Qualquer coisa dita em latim soa profundo. - Anything said in Latin sounds smart. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What's the best way to learn perl for a python programmer?
vj wrote: I've been given a project which requires writing scripts that need to be run on over 3000 servers. Only about 15% of them have python installed on them. While all/most of them will have perl. I'll try and do as much as possible in pexpect but am sure I'll have do some significant perl. Any suggestions on what is the best way to get upto speed on perl? There's lots of resources on the web, like http://llama.med.harvard.edu/~fgibbons/PerlPythonPhrasebook.html http://perl.active-venture.com/Porting/pumpkin-gotchas.html Maybe get 1 or 2 books, recommended: Perl Debugged (scott/wright) Effective Perl (Hall/ Schwartz) Debugging Perl (brown) o-o perl books (really well-written but I'm not going to represent that these books are easy to read), O-O Perl (Conway) Learnign Perl O-O (Randall schwartz) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What's the best way to learn perl for a python programmer?
Tell 'them' you need a uniform installation of your scipting language across all servers to ensure correct operation of your script then ensure its python that gets loaded ;-) I took a course in perl from Well House Consultants in the UK, which was good; then had an immediate use for perl, which helped me remember. I used the Well House manual and the Camel book for reference. (http://www.wellho.net/ - Tell Graham Paddy sent you). P.S. I don't have any connection to Well House, apart from learning Perl through them. - Paddy. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
