Re: Python & XML

["Matthew MacKenzie" <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
> I've been using (and writing :) Python XML processing tools for about
> a year now and am very pleased with the combination of Python and XML.
> I don't do XML stuff in Java (or Perl for that matter) any more unless
> I absolutely have to.
>
> Since Python is so simple, using the tools is simple as well and when
> something is wrong you can usually read the source and sometimes even
> fix it.
>
> If you're at all serious about doing XML programming I would
> definitely recommend taking a look at Python. Chances are you'll find
> yourself using it for all sorts of other stuff as well. The only real
> weaknesses for XML work are a lack of true garbage collection and
> Unicode support. The latter is being fixed, though. Speed may also be
> an issue, but you can almost always fix that by redoing the critical
> parts in C.

This describes my reaction to Perl.  I started using it for CGI scripts, and
it wasn't long before I was writing scripts to run just about everything on
my linux box.  I have heard Python is pretty cool, but I am just too
addicted to
Perl ;)  I must look at Python though.



>
> It's become a Swiss army knife with serious extensions for me. I've
> written POP clients and servers for various specialized uses, CGI
> scripts, web publishing scripts, link checkers, DBF file readers and
> much much more in it. In fact, almost all the parts of my personal
> infrastructure that I've built myself are built with Python.

The same is insanely easy in perl.  There are modules like Net::SMTP,POP,
XML::*,DBI,CGI.


>
> Having used it for a year and a half now I'm very satisfied with it,
> and although it's far from perfect there aren't many languages that I
> feel can compete when it comes to ease of programming. Optional type
> checking would be nice, as would a lot of the stuff that Common Lisp
> has.

Its nice to find a language that is fun to use.  I have friends that say
this about C++ and VB.


Matthew



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