[NBLUG/talk] Perl vs other scripting methods

[Walter Hansen]

matt wrote:
> Well the title is "Perl vs other scripting methods," and he wanted to do some 
> scripting, and Perl vs. PHP was the first thing that came to mind. It wasn't 
> that he wanted a comparison of Perl and PHP, it's that he wanted to get 
> something done, and he asked how to do it, so I don't think recommending 
> other scripting languages (Python, maybe Ruby if anyone likes it) was out of 
> line...
> 
> You are able to read and write Perl relatively seamlessly, but I think that 
> for a beginner (which it sounds like he is), he will get a lot more done in a 
> shorter amount of time with Python.

<orginal post>
Some years ago when I was working as a DBA, I used Perl to do things 
like nightly backups.  But time has flown by and I have not used Perl in 
over 15 years and now need to write some simple scripts.  Should I break 
out the Perl book (I assume it would still be good enough) or should I 
learn another scripting language?  As I recall, Perl and Php are similar 
and I am fairly proficient with Php.
</original post>

Doesn't sound like he's a beginner. He wrote perl scripts 15 years ago 
and writes currently in php. I honestly can't see learning a new 
language to write a couple of simple scripts when it sounds like he has 
all the skills to use two existing ones. I'm not against python but I 
honestly didn't see the connection in this case. But what confused me 
totally was Agnes's post to me saying I should should learn Python to 
write elaborate easily readable code. Aganes must have me mixed up with 
Todd Cary, the original poster.

I love perl. I'm very fond of php. I'd probably love Python also if I 
had a reason to work with it or spare time to read a book on it, but 
it's low on the priorities. Honestly this isn't a holy war. I was just 
trying to help him do whatever he wanted with what he has. I'm find 
myself less interested in jumping on language bandwagons and more 
interested in creating solutions.

I love C and C++ too (been awhile), but the ability to quickly do stuff 
in perl that would take tons of work in ether, brought me to the swiss 
army chainsaw. Web programming brought me to PHP. Python seems suited 
for GUI's and such, much like Java. Java strikes me as bloated and slow. 
  What's with all those files all over the place?

Oh, well, I'm rambling now.

So tell me what Python is good at.