why should I learn python

[BartlebyScrivener]

Easy to read, easy to write, good libraries and, I have found, an
extremely helpful community.

Hobbyists (like me) can work on projects written in Python on and off
(sometimes for weeks if not months without programming) and be able to
resume the work very quickly (because it's so easy to read and
understand the code).

I second these. I am not a programmer. You can get busy with other
projects for weeks and come back to Python code and pick up where you
left off, because it uses WORDS. Try remembering what (<>) or <*>
means after being away from Perl for a month.

rd

 

[Gabriel Genellina]

Hallöchen!

[...] Python has been by far the easiest to develop in. Some
people might say it is not "real programming" because it is so
easy.

I can't believe this. Have you really heard such a statement?

Maybe it's a allusion to that fake Stroustrup interview where
he supposedly explains that C++ was meant to be a difficult
language to use as a means to keep more programmers employed at
higher salaries?

I always thought the only goal of the C++ standard comittee was to devise
the most intrincate and convoluted rule ever imaginable.
It's like playing AD&D: the basic manual says something, but The Book Of
The Perfect And Sublime Elf says that in this case this other rule
applies, but a warrior Elf can read in The Ultimate And Most Complete
Warrior Companion a totally different rule, but the character's alignment
forbids all the three possibilities...

 

[James Stroud]

I second these. I am not a programmer. You can get busy with other
projects for weeks and come back to Python code and pick up where you
left off, because it uses WORDS. Try remembering what (<>) or <*>
means after being away from Perl for a month.

rd

Better is to try to remember the differences between and uses of:

$stupidPerl[4]
${stupidPerl}[4]
$stupidPerl->[4]
${stupidPerl}->[4]
$#stupidPerl[4]
$#{stupidPerl}[4]
$#{stupidPerl}->[4]
$#{$stupidPerl}->[4]->[4]

And so on.

Quiz: which are valid? (Careful now.)

The friggin' language is useless (except for the fact that, like
window$, a lot of people insist on using it over superior alternatives
and so you find yourself confronting it from time to time). In fact, it
was the need to use nested data structures that made me move to python
when I realized all of the above would be a thing of the past (also made
useless my perl "cheat sheet" that sits in my big-fat-useless-camel-book).

$Perl->[Useless]

--
James Stroud
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA 90095

http://www.jamesstroud.com/

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Tom Brown a écrit :

Checkout http://www.djangoproject.com/ or http://turbogears.org/ for web
development.

You forgot www.pylonshq.com - but indeed, Pylons may not be for newbies
(and anyway, turbogears 2.0 will be based on it...)

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

TheFlyingDutchman a écrit :

Python can be used as an apache module called mod_python and also as a
CGI language.

And also with fast-cgi, or wsgi, or as it's own HTTP server, etc...

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

windandwaves a écrit :

Can someone tell me why I should learn python?

Really, I cannot see any reason why you should do such a thing.

I am a webdeveloper,

I've seen this label is applied to a wide range of effective jobs, from
"building static web pages with a WYSWIG editor not even knowing html"
to "writing a full-blown web application server".

but I often see Python mentioned and I am curious to find out what I
am missing out on.

One of the best programming languages around, suitable for almost
anything except low-level stuff (system, drivers etc).

 

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

The friggin' language is useless (except for the fact that, like
window$, a lot of people insist on using it over superior alternatives
and so you find yourself confronting it from time to time). In fact, it
was the need to use nested data structures that made me move to python
when I realized all of the above would be a thing of the past (also made
useless my perl "cheat sheet" that sits in my big-fat-useless-camel-book).

$Perl->[Useless]

A few years ago I had someone at work, who does PERL, come to me for
help...

I DON'T do PERL.

I managed to find out, descriptively, what this person wanted to
accomplish. I found how to do that in Python -- even though I did have
to study the library reference a bit for features I'd never used before.

I then took the Python solution, and a copy of the Camel book, to
find the equivalent operations (mostly string modification stuff), and
pointed the PERL person to the PERL equivalents.
--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG
(e-mail address removed) (e-mail address removed)
HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/
(Bestiaria Support Staff: (e-mail address removed))
HTTP://www.bestiaria.com/

 

[kahrny]

Can someone tell me why I should learn python? I am a webdeveloper,
but I often see Python mentioned and I am curious to find out what I
am missing out on.

Thank you

Nicolaas

- You never really have to reinvent the wheel, and many python
modules are included by default. This means that you can accomplish
what you wanted to do much faster. Thus You can write a lot less code
to get to what you want to do. If a module does not exist yet, you can
create it!
- It is kinda close to pseudo code, so you can 'think' much easier in
python.
- It can be used for many many tasks, and you can adapt your
application as need be.
- It is still quite fast and lightweight!
- The community in general is quite helpful
- It is quite fun to use
- If it's good enough for nasa..

In regards to people claiming it is not 'real', that is a load of poo!
Ignore thy c elitists. Eric Raymond wrote a nice 'Why Python?'
article. http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3882

 

[Tim Williams]

Checkout http://www.djangoproject.com/ or http://turbogears.org/ for web
development. Checkout http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt/index.php for
writing GUI programs. There are other options for GUI apps. That is the one I
use all the time.

Also, check out Karrigell ( www.karrigell.com) . It will show you
just how easy & fast Python can be for web development. It has its
own web server, or it can sit behind Apache etc.

HTH

 

[vanrpeterson]

Why use Python?
1)Easy to read, debug and think.
2)Same language for batch scripting, server programming and dynamic
web page creation.
3)Libraries like wxPython for desktop and Cherrypy for web
development.
4)Pythonic JavaScript Library Mochikit.
5)Engineered for reality, not corporate proprietary control
(Microsoft).
6)Less code than Java the Huge.
7)Friendly with C for optimization, if necessary.
8)Works well with SQL, especially PostgreSQL.
9)Everybody is using it, even Microsoft with IronPython.
10)One of the dominant languages driving robotics.
11)Works nicely with UNICODE.
12)Liberal license.
13)And lastly, if you hate programming as I do, you will love Python.
Belief is when someone else does the thinking. ~ Buckminster Fuller

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ricardo_Ar=E1oz?=]

Hallöchen!

[...] Python has been by far the easiest to develop in. Some
people might say it is not "real programming" because it is so
easy.

I can't believe this. Have you really heard such a statement?

Yes. I was told this by a C programmer. Something about doing it all yourself
and not using provided packages. I countered with something about reinventing
the wheel.

You should have asked if he used the OS or did he control the devices
(HD, screen) himself.

 

[7stud]

Hallöchen!
Tom Brown writes:
[...] Python has been by far the easiest to develop in. Some
people might say it is not "real programming" because it is so
easy.
I can't believe this. Have you really heard such a statement?

Maybe it's a allusion to that fake Stroustrup interview where
he supposedly explains that C++ was meant to be a difficult
language to use as a means to keep more programmers employed at
higher salaries?

I always thought the only goal of the C++ standard comittee was to devise
the most intrincate and convoluted rule ever imaginable.
It's like playing AD&D: the basic manual says something, but The Book Of
The Perfect And Sublime Elf says that in this case this other rule
applies, but a warrior Elf can read in The Ultimate And Most Complete
Warrior Companion a totally different rule, but the character's alignment
forbids all the three possibilities...

Ha, ha, ha! lol.

 

[7stud]

I second these. I am not a programmer. You can get busy with other
projects for weeks and come back to Python code and pick up where you
left off, because it uses WORDS. Try remembering what (<>) or <*>
means after being away from Perl for a month.

rd

Better is to try to remember the differences between and uses of:

$stupidPerl[4]
${stupidPerl}[4]
$stupidPerl->[4]
${stupidPerl}->[4]
$#stupidPerl[4]
$#{stupidPerl}[4]
$#{stupidPerl}->[4]
$#{$stupidPerl}->[4]->[4]

And so on.

Quiz: which are valid? (Careful now.)

The friggin' language is useless (except for the fact that, like
window$, a lot of people insist on using it over superior alternatives
and so you find yourself confronting it from time to time). In fact, it
was the need to use nested data structures that made me move to python
when I realized all of the above would be a thing of the past (also made
useless my perl "cheat sheet" that sits in my big-fat-useless-camel-book).

$Perl->[Useless]

--
James Stroud
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA 90095

http://www.jamesstroud.com/

rofl.

 

[HowiPepper]

Can someone tell me why I should learn python? I am a webdeveloper,
but I often see Python mentioned and I am curious to find out what I
am missing out on.

Thank you

Nicolaas

Nicholaas,

There are many reasons to learn Python, and few not to. I'm another
one of those "multiple language" programmers, and have worked in C/C++
(yes, both of them), Java, Pascal (and Delphi), BASIC (and it's Visual
cousin), Clipper, Perl, PHP and Python (and a couple of dialects of
Unix shell scripting as well).

I started working in Perl back in 1998, mainly for web development.
Since then, I've done just about anything possible you can do with
Perl, and used it as my "Swiss army chainsaw" for practically anything
I needed to do. I got a contract with IBM, back in May of 2005, and
soon found out the group I worked with used Python for all of it's
"discretionary" development. I started reading "A Byte of Python",
and was soon hooked. I spent the next two years using Python as my
exclusive scripting language. And by scripting, I mean anything from
one or two line throw-aways, to major programs. Python makes it so
easy to build like that!

My new job, which I started several months ago, put me squarely back
in the Perl realm. Now I really miss Python! I've discussed with my
supervisor porting all of our Perl scripts over to Python, and he is
receptive, but I'm not holding my breath :-( For now, I use Perl and
shell at work, and Python (and shell) at home.

Python is just so much nicer than any other language I've developed
in. Once you get the swing of it (no pun intended), you will find
you're way more productive, your programs turn out better and are much
easier to go back to six months or a year later, and work with. Right
now, I'm going through Perl hell, trying to figure out what the heck
the past two guys did and why! ;-)

Regards,
Howard

 

[HowiPepper]

Sorry Nicolaas, I didn't mean to misspell your name!

Regards,
Howard