Acceptance of OpenOffice.org (was Re: Gov't , economics and technology (was Re: METROCAST BLOCKS RESIDENTIAL E-MAIL))

[Python]

On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 10:32 -0500, Kevin D. Clark wrote:
> [that's what I get for sending a message whilst running a test]
It was funnier the first way.
> 
> 
> I'm a Perl nut, so you may want to take this with a grain of salt, but
> I believe that Perl is becoming the language of choice for
> Astronomers, Geographers, Genome????ers, etc who need to do some
> programming as part of their profession, but do not see themselves as
> programmers.

Background anecdotal evidence:

ESRI has adopted Python as their preferred scripting language (leading
GIS software company)

Astronomers (who I admittedly met at a Python conference) who said that
Python had replaced Forth as the language of choice.

This is not meant to denigrate Perl or C or other programming languages.
If your programming is an adjunct to your main job, you'll want a
programming language that is relatively easy to apply.  C is not a
reasonable option.  Perl, Python, Ruby, Smalltalk, Tcl, all have pros
and cons, but do make the cut as languages that can be used effectively
by people without extensive programming backgrounds.  

Python uses white space rather than braces to mark blocks.  This can
create problems for the unwary.  Emailing Python source code can turn
into an adventure.  "abc" = "def" is an error in Python (use ==);
evaluates as true in Perl (use eq or =~).  There are so many pitfalls
and oddities that we just take for granted.

> 
> 
> Oh well.
> 
> --kevin
-- 
Lloyd Kvam
Venix Corp