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From: "Octavian Rasnita" <orasnita@gmail.com>
To: <python-list@python.org>
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Subject: Re: Why did Quora choose Python for its development?
Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 10:44:18 +0300
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From: "Hansmeet Singh" <hansmeetschool@gmail.com>

>i think we should end our butchering of perl on a light note (you may =
have
> already read this):
> EXTERIOR: DAGOBAH -- DAY
> With Yoda strapped to his back, Luke climbs up one of
> the many thick vines that grow in the swamp until he
> reaches the Dagobah statistics lab. Panting heavily, he
> continues his exercises -- grepping, installing new
> packages, logging in as root, and writing replacements for
> two-year-old shell scripts in Python.
>=20
> YODA: Code!  Yes.  A programmer's strength flows from code
>      maintainability.  But beware of Perl.  Terse syntax... more
>      than one way to do it...  default variables.  The dark side
>      of code maintainability are they.  Easily they flow, quick
>      to join you when code you write.  If once you start down the
>      dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume
>      you it will.
>=20
> LUKE: Is Perl better than Python?
>=20
> YODA: No... no... no.  Quicker, easier, more seductive.
>=20
> LUKE: But how will I know why Python is better than Perl?
>=20
> YODA: You will know.  When your code you try to read six months
>      from now.
>=20


I've noticed that on many Perl mailing lists the list members talk very =
rarely about Python, but only on this Python mailing list I read many =
discussions about Perl, in which most of the participants use to agree =
that yes, Python is better, as it shouldn't be obvious that most of the =
list members prefer Python.

If Python would be so great, you wouldn't talk so much about how bad are =
other languages, or if these discussions are not initiated by envy, you =
would be also talking about how bad is Visual Basic, or Pascal, or =
Delphi, or who knows other languages.

A few months ago I have asked how can I create a dictionary from a list, =
and there were so many techniques that I think that it is just a =
buzzword that in Perl there are many ways to do it, while in Python =
there is a single way. In Python I found from the messages I received on =
this mailing list that there are a lot of ways, without even beeing a =
"recommended" way, while in Perl there is a single way, of course much =
shorter and clearer.

A bad program can be written in any language, no matter if it is so =
strict and forces the programmer to use spaces as a way of defining the =
blocks of code, so the fact that Perl is very flexible is an advantage =
for the programmer who writes the code.

Perl offers the module Perl::Critic which offers a command line that =
checks the code for different levels of syntax errors which don't =
respect the good practices (which are also published in a book) so if =
the program has to be used by more programmers, it is very simple to =
bring it to a very standard syntax.

Perl also has Perl::Tidy that offers another command line which =
re-arrange the code to a standard way, including the indentation type, =
the placement of parenthesis, spacing and other things, so the programs =
can look visually the same.

And these are advantages for those that need to read the code by others =
also.

Because of its flexibility, Perl offers more advanced modules and =
libraries which are not available for Python. For example, Catalyst web =
framework is much powerful and flexible than any other Python framework, =
because it can be used with any ORM, with any templating system, with =
any form processor, with any type of configuration files (Apache style, =
ini, JSON, XML, perl data structures, yaml), and it can run with its own =
web server, or with mod_perl, FastCGI, cgi, psgi without any change, and =
it has a very clean and flexible URL dispatcher that doesn't need to do =
(and maintain) the URL mapping in a distinct module made only for this.
A Catalyst based application is very easy to maintain because it has a =
very clean structure and the command lines that can be used to =
automaticly generate the base for controllers, models or views also =
generate the base test files and also create a few basic tests for the =
created modules, beeing very easy to add new tests.

And DBIx::Class ORM is a very powerful ORM and Template-Toolkit a great =
templating system, and Moose can be used to create a very powerful =
object model, and there are a lot of other very good modules which are =
not available for other languages.

It can be hard to find the good quality Perl code while you don't know =
where to look for though. This is right, because the web is full of =
old-style Perl code since the era of Matt's Perl script archive, and the =
web is also full of pirated books about using CGI, but talking about =
that bad style code shows just that you are talking about something you =
don't know.

Somebody told that C# and Objective C are good languages. They might be =
good, but they are proprietary, and not only that they are proprietary, =
but they need to be ran under platforms that cannot be used freely, so =
from the freedom point of view, Perl, Ruby, Python and Java are the ways =
to go.

Octavian