Re: Scripting language takes a silicon turn

[Chris Marrin <chris@...>]

Boyko Bantchev wrote:
> On 1/24/06, Vijay Aswadhati <wyseman@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> > FYI:
> > http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177101584
> >
> > Seems to me that the major design choice in picking Python is based
> > on the availablity of 'generators'. I only dabbled in Python a long
> > time ago; I wonder what is so 'brilliant' about Python....
>
>
> I do wonder about that myself.
> I am also puzzled by the following: is it that I tend to dislike
> some languages because they are overly hyped, or is it simply
> because I find them non-aesthetic and/or uninspiring?
> For scripting, I would always pick one of Icon, Lua, Rexx,
> Ruby, but not Perl or Python.

So you didn't hang out with the popular kids in High School then? :-)

Perl and Python are popular because they are fairly ubiquitous and come 
installed with a rich set of support libraries. And their installation 
when you don't happen to have them already is like this: 1) download a 
few megabyte installer (.exe or .rpm), 2) double-click the installer and 
let it run, 3) go write some applications.

In fact, long ago, Perl was the language of choice because it really was 
installed on every Unix machine. But Perl is awfully quirky, so people 
started moving to Python because of its more sane (although still 
quirky) and powerful syntax, equally easy install, and powerful default 
support library.

Lua could be the new Python if it had a good installation and support 
library story. I don't think it even needs the large number of support 
libraries, just more than what it has today. Of course, Lua's syntax is 
STILL quirky (~= instead of !=, really? Are you kidding me? :-)

Hmmm. Maybe a language MUST be quirky to be popular!

--
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