[Cialug] How many people are using Python ?

[Colin Burnett]

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 10:59 AM, Chris Freeman <cwfreeman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I find it interesting to see someone from a C background interested in
> Python because I strongly associate Python with whitespace syntax and
> whitespace syntax with makefiles. And the biggest problems I've ever had
> with makefiles have always originated from screwing up the tabs/spaces.

Hah!  I love C for the absolute control (C is just a pretty assembly
language) and, I guess, I use Python by elimination for a scripting
language. :)  And I'd much rather write C# under mono than C++.
(Let's see how many replies that gets!)

> Most people counter with 'well, use a good IDE'. But for one-off projects,
> I'm more likely to use Vim, and I don't like to clutter my IDE with tab
> marks anyway.

vim for life.

> Besides, Perl does everything I need to get done, and does it well, so I've
> never successfully picked up any other similar languages. I've tried Ruby
> with a little success, and I've tried Scala and a few others. But if you've
> got enough tools in your tool chest, it's harder to learn new ones. Maybe I
> should brush off my Ruby book again...

I go the other way.  The more tools you know the easier new tools are
to learn.  Tools are a realization of a task and the more tools you
know the better you are going to understand the task which means you
don't need to learn the tools anymore: you just understand how to use
them.

I suppose the challenge is that once you get comfortable with the
tools you know the less inclined you are to leave your "comfort zone."
 :)


Colin