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At 04:59 AM 5/3/2004, MichaelSuesserott wrote:
>Hi Alex,
>
>isn't it strange how we are now speaking of Java code as "legacy code", when
>only a brief 6 years ago Java was still considered a grassroots movement?
>
>But I do agree with your analysis. In fact, as a former computer scientist
>turned trader I have lived through the COBOL-C-C++ transitions just as you
>describe them. (I even know COBOL which makes me feel like I'm 100 years
>old). I made the move from Java to Python about two years ago, and
>immediately fell in love with that powerful, terse, yet easy to use,
>language. There is no doubt in my mind that programmers around the world
>will soon see the benefits.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Michael
I have been following these language comparisons with interest.
I remember the joy of learning perl a number of years ago. It seemed like everything in it was cool, and the motto "Timtowdti" or "there's more than one way to do it" meant that you were free to approach problems in whatever way felt right for you. Since then I have gotten a little rusty in Perl and I have to agree a bit with Perl's critics - "it looks like line noise". If you are up on perl, it is very cool, but if you are not, it's cryptic. I'm starting to think that timtowdti may not be a strength but a weakness, particularly when compared to Python's "we'll all do it the same standard way" philosophy. So although I haven't done any serious Python programming, I tend to think that it is the a language I'd like to learn well.
The problem with Perl and Python, at least in the windows world, is that they are fine for command line programs and behind the scenes crunching, but tying them to a fully functional user interface is lame. I might be wrong, but so far all the graphics toolkits I've seen don't easily support the same complete control set as VB6 or .NET does, just basic widgets. For example, Joel recently mentioned the Dundas chart control - could you easily use that in a Python program? Until these tools can support all controls and make them just as easy to program in they are as VB6 or .NET, I don't see them becoming the tool of choice for apps that need cool user interfaces.
Just my 2 cents.
Mike Gossland
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