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Python version of IQ has been updates (IQ v0.34.python)

Kirk Strauser kirk at strauser.com
Mon Jun 18 12:03:49 EDT 2001 
At 2001-06-18T08:59:32Z, "Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> writes:

> For regular expressions, they're extremely similar, and both VERY
> hard-going for a beginner.

Alex,

I would compare that to "Mathematica's nonlinear equation solvers are VERY
hard-going for non-mathematicians."  Perl's RE syntax is designed by and for
people who have pretty much mastered the subject elsewhere.

> Outside of regular expressions, I do not think anybody would claim Perl's
> concise syntax is anywhere near as easy-to-read as Python's clean and
> spare one.

I would.  Then again, I'm more experienced with C, C++, Java, and other
similar languages.  You can write C in Perl if you feel comfortable with
it.

> > Can perl be compiled into byte code for faster startup or put into a stand
> > alone application? Or is Perl strickly an interpreted language?

> Both:-).  You can *buy* "Perl compilers" (e.g. from ActiveState
> and IndigoPerl -- are there others?) that are roughly equivalent
> to what you can do with the free py2exe and McMillan's "install"
> for Python.

They are also similar to the `perlcc' command that ships with Perl 5.005 and
higher.  Specifically, perlcc generates C source that, when compiled, acts
exactly like the original Perl.

> > Of course you can port IQ to Perl if you want, but in any case (perl,
> > python, rebol, arexx) it'd be nice to incorporate into IQ, the ability to
> > access files thru the internet in a way that is as simple as accessing a
> > file on the system you are using IQ on.

> If you use Python, that's trivial -- just open the URL string with
> urllib.urlopen, exactly like you would open a filepath string with the
> builtin function open, and you'll get a file(-like) object ready for
> reading through all the usual fileobject methods (.read, readline, etc
> etc).

Same with Perl.  Use the appropriate class, create a URL-fetch object, then
execute it.  Read the results just like any other filehandle.

Perl and Python are roughly equivalent from my understanding.  However, it's
my opinion that Perl is much more well-supported, with massive amounts of
online documentation and available help.
-- 
Kirk Strauser
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