[ale] Python questions

[James P. Kinney III]

On Tue, 2004-08-03 at 21:41, Chris Fowler wrote:
> I'm looking at writing some of our code in python so I can have some
> true OOP goodness.  I've built the latest and installed it but am having
> issues getting started.  For starters I'm use to the perl module
> system.  If I need a module I'll go get it with CPAN.  With python I
> have to download it from one of many sites and manually build and
> install.  I'm having difficulty getting the MySQL module to compile
> because of my unique setup on my machine.  Is there a better way? Should
> I just use OOP the best I can in Perl and forget the python?
> 
> What would be the benefit of Python over Perl for writing basically
> scripts that do everything.  My programs are the backend agents for a
> J2EE application.  The gather data, notify technicians, etc.  J2EE is
> only used for the presentation of that data.

Almost flamebait...   :)

There seem to be two completely different mindsets between perl and
python. The "there's more than one way to do it" from perl give a huge
amount of freedom to the developer at the expense of cryptic code to
debug later. Python requires some very rigid coding constraints
(whitespace counts is the first one to encounter) that can make for more
readable code later. But the module base in perl is much larger. 

I have several friends that have done loads of perl and switched to
python and are completely happy (and chide me to do the same.). Yes,
there is a learning curve (and for a perl coder, probably and
_un_learning curve as well!). I keep tinkering with bits of python (it's
the backend for lots of the redhat based distro's admin UI stuff) but
have not made "the leap" as I have 2 large apps in perl that I work in
and support (sql-ledger and interchange) and adding another set of rules
to work with might cause a brain melt-down (I guess COMMENTS are for
wimps and losers. Argh!).

My physics friends tell me python with NumPy is what is pretty much
running the collider at FermiLab.

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James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
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GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
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