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Comment by thomasmallen | Hacker News Reader

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thomasmallen·

I agree. Python has a long way to go before it competes with Perl instead of Ruby.

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You're right. Why just last night I read some python code and actually understood it!

What do you think Python lacks relative to Perl?

I used to do Perl and now work in a Python shop, and the only Perl feature I really miss is closures (as opposed to Python's hobbled-by-design "lambda" construct).

What does Python lack, relative to Perl? Popularity. I know very little Perl and very much Python; my statements aren't intended to promote a particular language. The competition I referred to is based on popularity, not merit.

There's not that much difference in popularity these days. Of projects listed by Freshmeat, Perl is used on 3784 and Python on 3286 ( http://freshmeat.net/browse/160/ ).

A few years ago, Perl had twice as many projects as Python; now it's almost even.

Let's be honest, there's much more Perl code in the wild than Python, and CPAN towers over any Python network. The knowledge base is far greater for Perl as well (there are books on the DBI alone).

Of course, I'd rather code Python usually.

yeah that's why I've been converting any Perl apps I've been assigned to Python hehe

The Python version of the CPAN is called ["PyPI"](http://pypi.python.org/pypi). It was formerly called the "Cheeseshop".

From the PyPI front page: "There are currently 5256 packages here." According to cpan.org, the CPAN is up to "14749 modules" -- dunno how many distributions that makes though.

It's 14793 distributions and x3 modules.

You need to maintain readability (whitespaces) in Python, but in Perl you can do this automatically with perltidy.

You're right. Guido would have to completely fuck up the design of Python 3 for it to be anywhere near as ugly as Perl!

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