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hello all

Brian van den Broek bvande at po-box.mcgill.ca
Fri Dec 3 11:26:54 EST 2004 
Ishwor Gurung said unto the world upon 2004-12-03 03:36:
> Hello all,
>   I am just starting out on learning Python and joined this list. I
> have grabbed the Learning Perl book by Mark & David. This book really
> seems good so far.. the concepts are explained pretty nicely. :) I
> have a background a bit in Java but Python seems so cooler. The
> concept of Dynamically assigning values n the objects springing into
> existence is really nice to see especially you don't have to declare
> variable everytime its used. In this book though it says Python 3.0 as
> upcoming python version but all i see so far is Python 2.4 ?? Any
> hints anyone has? So contrasting with Java  which is a bit like C++
> where values and object has to be "created" before assigning, Python
> seems very typical of "on the edge" language, "ready to go" language
> :)
> cheers,
> Ishwor

Hi Ishwor,

*Learning Perl*? -- burn him, he's a witch! ;-)

I am only a hobbyist, and know just enough Python to be dangerous. But,
for what you ask:

Python recently released 2.4. Python 3.0 is definitely in the future.
Python seems to have quite a conservative stance with respect to
backwards compatibility. Most (all?) Python 1.5.2 code will still run on
Python 2.4. Python 3.0 is being pondered well in advance, because, as I
understand it, the 2.x to 3.x switch will be allowed to loosen the
backwards comp. requirement considerably. 2.3 -> 2.4 took 18 months. I
don't know how many more 2.x's are planned/likely, but there will be, as
I understand it, at least a 2.5.

Since you have a Java background, you might find the recent
<http://dirtsimple.org/2004/12/python-is-not-java.html> interesting. I
did, but I know even less Java than Python. So, YMMV.

Also, while you might be more of a programmer than the target audience,
the Tutor list is very good for people just getting started with Python.
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/> The main list is also quite
happy to answer newcomer help questions, but the Tutor folk specialize
at it.

HTH,

Brian vdB
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