I’ve been reading about Python in my free time and I’m amazed how cool it is.
It features dynamic variable instantiation (this means you don’t have to do the boring job of instantiating all variables to a certain type, like in C or Java), it’s pretty fast (at least two times faster than PHP, for example) and, the Python code syntax is also very pleasant to look at, due to its indentation rule: every loop, condition or any other structure needs to be indented - there is no curly braces or begins/ends, here is an example:
There are some issues that I dislike in Python though, one of them is the immutability of string variables, once you have instantiated a string variable you are unable to change its value. Another problem is the division operator, I still didn’t got the chance to play with it but from what I’ve read it’s kinda buggy. Maybe these (and possibly other problems that I’m still not aware of will be solved in Python 3000 release - you can watch a Google Tech Talk video about Python 3000 here).
In the overall I think that Guido van Rossum (the creator of Python) did a pretty good job with it, Python is now extensively used in Google and NASA among others big names of the jungle.
You can get Python here or ActivePython here, I also recommend Komodo Edit as the editor - it’s free and very neat.
I’ll be posting more about my Python learning experience now and them, if you have any trouble with Python I’ll be more than glad to help you out.
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