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Re: YAPAS (Yet Another Python Advocacy Story)
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The guy does make a few good points about some languages (albeit
indirectly and in a way that encompases too much), such as his
implications that some languages are a bit too legacy oriented. However,
his few good points are overwhelmed by assertions such as python being
practical for a word processor, java being a very good language (I'm sure
everybody won't agree w/ me here), and perl not being scalable (though I
agree that it's probably not the best beginner language). He clearly
doesn't understand the situations he comments on fully and it sounds as if
his idea of a good programming language is one that is relatively easy to
learn and has a simple to use graphical tool kit.
On Sun, 5 Mar 2000, David H. Adler wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 05, 2000 at 12:49:50AM -0500, Walt Mankowski wrote:
> > Has anyone else had a chance to read the latest pro-Python, anti-Perl
> > (and everything else) diatribe on the Oreilly web site, "Why I Promote
> > Python" (http://www.oreilly.com/news/prescod_0300.html)?
>
> It's linked from the "Software Carpentry" page, but I hadn't really
> looked at it until now...
>
> > Certainly there are valid arguments to be made on both sides, but the
> > author seems so incredibly clueless that I think O'Reilly is doing the
> > entire Python community a disservice by giving this guy such a
> > high-profile soapbox.
>
> Indeed. Not only does he say 'Many other programs are written in a
> variety of illegible dialects within the family of languages called
> "Perl".', which is clearly incomprehensible (is that an oxymoron?
> :-), but he also presents this comment: 'C++ and Perl only make sense
> if you have a particular programming background. If you did not come
> from the "Unix tradition", many of their conventions and idioms seem
> alien.'
>
> I should make clear that, before coming to Perl, I had last programmed
> in college, in the mid-eighties, in Pascal. I could not, for the life
> of me, tell you what kind of system we used. I've been using macs
> other than that since they first came out. A "Unix" background I did
> not have. In fact, had I not discovered Perl, I might very well
> *still* not have such a background.
>
> I wonder if I should suggest he put that in his pipe and smoke it, or
> if that would be giving it more attention than it deserves... :-/
>
> dha
>
> --
> David H. Adler - <dha@panix.com> - http://www.panix.com/~dha/
> Trust the computer industry to shorten the term "Year 2000" to Y2K.
> It was this kind of thinking that got us in trouble in the first
> place. - Adrian Tyvand
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>
Nicolai Rosen
nick@netaxs.com
Earthstation/Netaxs
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