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So I've decided, three years after my last highschool computer science class, I really want to get into coding more seriously on my own. I decided a good foot in the door would be a scripting language like Perl or Python, and have a book on each of them lying around.
For past experience I have about a year and a half of school-taught Java knowledge, as well as a cursary knowledge of C, BASIC, and Visual Basic, as well as knowing how to write DOS batch files (which is.. hardly complex. lol)

I'm divided on what to learn how however. I mean, there's perl, where I can swing in on a rope, tell everyone to stand back as i know regular expressions, and work my *perl* magic er it has slightly more syntactic similarities with Java and C, as well as from what I've seen slightly more commonly implimented, coupled with the fact that I view programming very much as an artform as much as a craft and am a huge fan of the "there's more than one way to do it" philosophy"

On the otherhand Python will make me fly is very simple, well implemented, and just strikes me as an easy efficiant language. However I don't like its engineering "This is the right way" mindset

Ultimatly I'd like to learn both, but I'm a university student and passing that is my biggest priority, and I'd rather only be fighting with one language initially on the side.

Any thoughts?

Python would probably be easier to maintain if you came back to your code in a few years, simply because it's not as free-form as Perl.

It's pretty bad when you look at your own code and say "WTF? What am I doing here?"

Over the last year I have learned a fair bit of both languages. I'm still novice-level at best but I can get around in either one.

And my position is: I love Perl, but I would recommend Python. For the reasons you list, Python will allow you to produce working complex programs in less time. Like it or not, the engineering approach is a practical one, and Python will be a valuable tool, especially if you're in a university program where it is useful to write simple scripts to automate repetitive calculations or tasks.

Then, when you've had enough of writing colons after if statements, dive into Perl, and feel narrow, claustrophobic hallways give way to limitless horizons and endless blue sky. Finally, you've found the language that lets you write the most beautiful code in the universe that only you can decipher.

I daresay my Poli-sci program won't need much repetitive scripts except when i spend more time playing with linux than actually paying attention in class.

I think I'll dodge the perl-WTFAMIDOING phobia as I'm such a compulsive commenter. I was tought to comment every line [which I don't do. I think we can figure out what int x = 1 means) but I always make sure my code is well documented because I'm so bad at looking at code and just "getting it" right away.

pikaporeon wrote:

I was tought to comment every line [which I don't do. I think we can figure out what int x = 1 means) but I always make sure my code is well documented because I'm so bad at looking at code and just "getting it" right away.

While commenting every single line is helpful in some instances, I find that it sometimes gets in the way of rereadablity (as ironic as it sounds) because it breaks the flow of your code (things aren't right next to each other anymore). it is far more important (if you ask my instructors anyway, and i tend to agree) to have code that is self documenting / self explanatory (i.e. using "int counter" instead of "int x"). As for your question about perl vs python... I don't know either, so I never really understood the idea of "beautiful code" that perl programmers seem to go off on tangents about (I am a Java and C++ programmer if you're wondering).

semantics and art. Sometimes being limited to only one way of doing things especially if you're used to another way from a different language might be frustrating.

My personal vote would be for Python. It is structured enough to encourage you to adopt a logical approach to the problem and write readable code, but it doesn't get in the way. It also works quite well for agile development and rapid prototyping.

Unless you're planning on working with obscure platforms and/or embedded development, I don't think Python is any less widely available than Perl. It is certainly well-supported on all of the major desktop/server platforms (Windows, Linux/UNIX, OS X).

pikaporeon wrote:

semantics and art. Sometimes being limited to only one way of doing things especially if you're used to another way from a different language might be frustrating.

You can definitely write Fortran in Perl, yes.

Another vote for Python (I'm sure people who read Developer's Den won't be surprised). If we're comparing Perl to art, most Perl scripts would remind me of Jackson Pollack's works.

The tangent about commenting every line of code reminded me of Steve Yegge's latest blog post, "Portrait of a noob." I don't necessarily agree with all of the later content of his post (about dynamic versus static typing), but I definitely recognize the "over-commenting trivial things" when you are a beginner anti-pattern he starts off discussing.

Python is a wonderfully elegant scripting language.

I would recommend perl only for maintaining code already written in perl, or for doing some very simple single-line script parsing.