Re: [TCLUG:21269] Beginning - Language Perl or Python?

[Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom <chrome@real-time.com>]

> Hello all, I am starting to teach myself to program using a scripting
> language.  I've heard that both Perl and Python are powerful and fairly easy
> to use.  
> 
> Are there any inherent advantages to one or the other for the beginning
> programmer?  By beginning I mean no other programming experience other that
> a little basic a long time ago. (That should probably be a long long time
> ago, as in the beginning of Star Wars).

well, Python is pretty much designed for readability and maintainability; it still has some very powerful concepts, tho. it's not a trivial language like BASIC. :)
perl is beautiful in its compactness; the amount of expression one has in a very small space is amazing. (I'm given to understand that APL was the same way, but don't know much else about it.)

I personally think Python is a better choice if you just want to learn to write code (I'm intending to do the same thing myself, if I can ever break my Diablo2 habit). Perl may have more applications, tho (at least at the moment).
check out the tutorial links at python.org; they're very good.

shell scripting isn't a bad thing to learn, either. :)

Carl.
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