On Tue, 2006-07-04 at 16:37 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I am seeking opinions from seasoned veterans on the following two > questions: > You're getting plenty of replies. Here's a bit more.
You're probably aware that ESRI has adopted Python for scripting with their applications. > 1. What's involved in a port of a C program into Python? (drawmap is > offered in a number of linux distributions btw.) http://ldots.org/pyrex-guide/ pyrex integrates Python and C into a hybrid language that might be useful for porting existing C code. > > 2. Seeing Python hailed as a good language for learning programming, > how do you rate it as a lifetime language? (I can imagine that many > people have settled into one language for doing the remainder of their > life's work. If I am pressed, I will choose Perl at this point.) I think it is easier to learn to write complex applications in Python than Perl. Certainly Perl is rich in features and capabilities, but I find the rules for keeping everything straight are more complex than Python's and the possibility of uncaught errors in Perl seems much higher than in Python. My favorite example of this is: cat test.pl if ("abc" == "def") {print "all letters are =\n"}; perl test.pl all letters are = ) == is the numeric comparison. The strings are evaluated to numbers and both are treated as zero. 0 = 0 is true. "abc" eq "def" will behave as expected. Python has its own pitfalls, but I find the Python pitfalls much easier to live with. Python continues to evolve while preserving backwards compatibility. Recent additions such as list comprehension, generators, generator expressions, display a growth and dynamism that I think will continue to make Python a great choice among programming languages into the future. (You didn't really think you'd find people on this list urging you to use Perl.) -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor