Perl or Python?
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I'm thinking of learning a new programming language this year, and had almost settled on Python. When I was chatting with my boss the other day, he said it would be a good idea to learn Perl. We plan to use neither of these in our project, so work shouldn't be a factor here. What would you recommend - Python or Perl? Why? If you feel very strongly about some other* language, feel free** to recommend it. Again, why? * Leave out C/C++, Java, HTML and C# - I already know them. ** Anybody who recommends any derivative of BASIC will get kicked in the shins. :-D Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
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I would recommend Python, as it's a more modern language. In my opinion however, nothing beats Perl when it comes to regular expressions. Also if you come from a C origin, Perl may seem more attractive. For GUI applications you will have more alternatives with Python (Tk, Gtk, Java). Whatever you decide, you will easily find plenty of documentation and source code examples. Both languages have an extensive library support. It would be easier to transform your script to an executable with Python. This way you can distribute your code without the need of a bulky installation file. Another not so mainstream alternative is Ruby.
Thanks for your comments, Giannakakis. I shall keep your advice in mind. I'll steer clear of Ruby for now though. I doubt if most people (esp the ones doing the hiring) in India have even heard of it. :^) Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
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Why? :) Alright, I'll bite - I doubt if people here have even heard of Python itself. From what I've seen of the job market, neither Perl nor Python is in great demand, though Perl seems to have at least a presence. I have nothing against Ruby per se, but it is not mainstream, and almost nobody would recognize Ruby as a programming language if they saw it on a CV. *shrug* Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
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Why? :) Alright, I'll bite - I doubt if people here have even heard of Python itself. From what I've seen of the job market, neither Perl nor Python is in great demand, though Perl seems to have at least a presence. I have nothing against Ruby per se, but it is not mainstream, and almost nobody would recognize Ruby as a programming language if they saw it on a CV. *shrug* Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
Depends what market you are in. You will find Ruby rising as a requirement for web-developers. With the success of Ruby on Rails, Ruby itself is gaining attention. regards, Paul Watson Ireland Colib and ilikecameras. K(arl) wrote: oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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Why? :) Alright, I'll bite - I doubt if people here have even heard of Python itself. From what I've seen of the job market, neither Perl nor Python is in great demand, though Perl seems to have at least a presence. I have nothing against Ruby per se, but it is not mainstream, and almost nobody would recognize Ruby as a programming language if they saw it on a CV. *shrug* Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
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I'm thinking of learning a new programming language this year, and had almost settled on Python. When I was chatting with my boss the other day, he said it would be a good idea to learn Perl. We plan to use neither of these in our project, so work shouldn't be a factor here. What would you recommend - Python or Perl? Why? If you feel very strongly about some other* language, feel free** to recommend it. Again, why? * Leave out C/C++, Java, HTML and C# - I already know them. ** Anybody who recommends any derivative of BASIC will get kicked in the shins. :-D Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
I think XSLT is a very good candidate. It uses XPath a lot internally, which means that you will also be able to learn XQuery easily. Since XML is used so much nowadays, that should definitely boost your CV. It also can be used in conjunction with, rather than in place of, your other skills.
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Why? :) Alright, I'll bite - I doubt if people here have even heard of Python itself. From what I've seen of the job market, neither Perl nor Python is in great demand, though Perl seems to have at least a presence. I have nothing against Ruby per se, but it is not mainstream, and almost nobody would recognize Ruby as a programming language if they saw it on a CV. *shrug* Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
Vikram Shannon wrote:
I doubt if people here have even heard of Python itself.
Are you serious?!? I'd be surprised if people here haven't heard of Phython... christ.. Google started as a Python app. Plus, there have been a good few posts about IronPython here on the lounge recently. Python and Ruby are fairly similar languages but Ruby is starting to come to the forefront more and more due to Rails. As regards Perl, yes, there are a few jobs out there and it's still used a bit but no where near as much as it was in the past. I'd say that if someone was looking to learn a new language now (or the interpreted rather than compiled type) with the aim of increasing their job prospects that Ruby would be the best bet going forward... unless of course you're after a job in Google... the last time I checked they still required Python experience for most of their engineering jobs. Regards, Brian Dela :-) Blog^ Co-author of The Outlook Answer Book... Go on, order^ it today!
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I'm thinking of learning a new programming language this year, and had almost settled on Python. When I was chatting with my boss the other day, he said it would be a good idea to learn Perl. We plan to use neither of these in our project, so work shouldn't be a factor here. What would you recommend - Python or Perl? Why? If you feel very strongly about some other* language, feel free** to recommend it. Again, why? * Leave out C/C++, Java, HTML and C# - I already know them. ** Anybody who recommends any derivative of BASIC will get kicked in the shins. :-D Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
I tried Boo.NET a while ago which is supposed to be a .NET hybrid of python. very cool stuff :) http://boo.codehaus.org/[^] -- modified at 7:52 Tuesday 17th January, 2006 http://www.puzzleframework.com
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I'm thinking of learning a new programming language this year, and had almost settled on Python. When I was chatting with my boss the other day, he said it would be a good idea to learn Perl. We plan to use neither of these in our project, so work shouldn't be a factor here. What would you recommend - Python or Perl? Why? If you feel very strongly about some other* language, feel free** to recommend it. Again, why? * Leave out C/C++, Java, HTML and C# - I already know them. ** Anybody who recommends any derivative of BASIC will get kicked in the shins. :-D Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
You can learn python or ruby very fast. For me it was a few trips to the bookstore during lunch hour for a working knowledge. Obviously, it will take time to master any of the language. I cannot say the same is true for Perl. In my opinion perl is not as easy to learn as python or ruby.
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I'm thinking of learning a new programming language this year, and had almost settled on Python. When I was chatting with my boss the other day, he said it would be a good idea to learn Perl. We plan to use neither of these in our project, so work shouldn't be a factor here. What would you recommend - Python or Perl? Why? If you feel very strongly about some other* language, feel free** to recommend it. Again, why? * Leave out C/C++, Java, HTML and C# - I already know them. ** Anybody who recommends any derivative of BASIC will get kicked in the shins. :-D Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
What about Smalltalk?
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I'm thinking of learning a new programming language this year, and had almost settled on Python. When I was chatting with my boss the other day, he said it would be a good idea to learn Perl. We plan to use neither of these in our project, so work shouldn't be a factor here. What would you recommend - Python or Perl? Why? If you feel very strongly about some other* language, feel free** to recommend it. Again, why? * Leave out C/C++, Java, HTML and C# - I already know them. ** Anybody who recommends any derivative of BASIC will get kicked in the shins. :-D Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
Perl is interesting. never done Python. PHP is simple if you know C. you could probably learn it in a couple days, if you want to make this year a two-language year :) or, you could try something a little more exotic like ML or Haskell. Cleek | Image Toolkits | Thumbnail maker
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Vikram Shannon wrote:
I doubt if people here have even heard of Python itself
Are you kidding ? It would surprise me if people would *not* have heard of Python. ~RaGE();
Rage wrote:
Are you kidding ?
No. :| Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying it's not well-used (after all, I'm looking forward to learn it, right?), I'm only saying people in my area don't seem to be aware of it. In the last 4 years that I've been looking at the Opportunities section in the paper, I've never seen an opening for a Python candidate. Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
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Vikram Shannon wrote:
I doubt if people here have even heard of Python itself.
Are you serious?!? I'd be surprised if people here haven't heard of Phython... christ.. Google started as a Python app. Plus, there have been a good few posts about IronPython here on the lounge recently. Python and Ruby are fairly similar languages but Ruby is starting to come to the forefront more and more due to Rails. As regards Perl, yes, there are a few jobs out there and it's still used a bit but no where near as much as it was in the past. I'd say that if someone was looking to learn a new language now (or the interpreted rather than compiled type) with the aim of increasing their job prospects that Ruby would be the best bet going forward... unless of course you're after a job in Google... the last time I checked they still required Python experience for most of their engineering jobs. Regards, Brian Dela :-) Blog^ Co-author of The Outlook Answer Book... Go on, order^ it today!
Brian, Please see my reply to Rage above. Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
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Brian, Please see my reply to Rage above. Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
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A work colleague gave me this link to a really cool online Ruby tutorial, even if you're not that bothered about learning Ruby, it's well worth a visit! :-D
WOW! :cool: Thanks, Paul! I've bookmarked it. :rose: Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. i dont mind to be a stupid,better than being a moron - Adnan Siddiqi.
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WOW! :cool: Thanks, Paul! I've bookmarked it. :rose: Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. i dont mind to be a stupid,better than being a moron - Adnan Siddiqi.
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Rage wrote:
Are you kidding ?
No. :| Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying it's not well-used (after all, I'm looking forward to learn it, right?), I'm only saying people in my area don't seem to be aware of it. In the last 4 years that I've been looking at the Opportunities section in the paper, I've never seen an opening for a Python candidate. Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
Vikram Shannon wrote:
In the last 4 years that I've been looking at the Opportunities section in the paper, I've never seen an opening for a Python candidate.
Yes, so will you never find an opportunity for a batch/shell programmer. Python, Perl and other script languages are usually used to programm tools, scripts that make life easier, but not to develop complete applications (IMO). ~RaGE();
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I'm thinking of learning a new programming language this year, and had almost settled on Python. When I was chatting with my boss the other day, he said it would be a good idea to learn Perl. We plan to use neither of these in our project, so work shouldn't be a factor here. What would you recommend - Python or Perl? Why? If you feel very strongly about some other* language, feel free** to recommend it. Again, why? * Leave out C/C++, Java, HTML and C# - I already know them. ** Anybody who recommends any derivative of BASIC will get kicked in the shins. :-D Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
Well, I don't know Python, so I'm gonna recommend Perl. Long story short, if you need to do text/input/data processing Perl is the way to go. Jeremy Falcon
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I'm thinking of learning a new programming language this year, and had almost settled on Python. When I was chatting with my boss the other day, he said it would be a good idea to learn Perl. We plan to use neither of these in our project, so work shouldn't be a factor here. What would you recommend - Python or Perl? Why? If you feel very strongly about some other* language, feel free** to recommend it. Again, why? * Leave out C/C++, Java, HTML and C# - I already know them. ** Anybody who recommends any derivative of BASIC will get kicked in the shins. :-D Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton. don`t try to be clever ass wid me while you can`t.. - Adnan Siddiqi.
Python. Because Python code is far easier to read and maintain IMHO. If you're writing UI apps, you'll have more options with Python. You can even get Python running under the .NET framework (with full access to Windows Forms): see IronPython[^].
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit. I'm currently blogging about: Little House on the Flickr Judah Himango
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No, the assembler in that case was the guy with the screwdriver and the wrench, putting it together.
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