A few years back I wrote some scripts for web input processing. I knew a smattering of Perl so wrote them in Perl. They worked ok as far as I could tell . I had other things to do so stopped working on them, then went back after a while to add some functionality and discovered that I had no idea what I had done or how. Eventually I worked it out and added the functionality I wanted (and comments, yup) and went away again. The next time I went back I had to learn the whole thing again and my comments and cleaned up code didn't help.
So I'd heard about Python and that it was good, so (since I like the process of learning new languages) I decided to try rewriting the scripts in python. In about two days I had them doing everything the perl had done and the added functionality as well and with remarkably few bugs.
Eventually I went back to add on more functionality and "Lo!" I had no trouble reading my Python code and even better adding in the new stuff was simple.
The biggest problem with Python has been the lack of a good book, I'll be considering "Dive into Python" carefully - being in the education biz I'm looking for a really good Python book for students.
I'm not sure how well suited it would be for students specifically, but I've found O'Reilly's Learning Python, 2nd Edition [oreilly.com] to be an excellent book for, well, learning Python.
I recently completed reading it from cover to cover, and while I didn't yet even code the examples myself (I plan to do that on my second read), every chapter felt like a series of revelations.
Highly recommended. Combine that with other books (Dive into Python looks very nice) and a few extra resources, and you and/or your students
Python (Score:4, Insightful)
So I'd heard about Python and that it was good, so (since I like the process of learning new languages) I decided to try rewriting the scripts in python. In about two days I had them doing everything the perl had done and the added functionality as well and with remarkably few bugs.
Eventually I went back to add on more functionality and "Lo!" I had no trouble reading my Python code and even better adding in the new stuff was simple.
The biggest problem with Python has been the lack of a good book, I'll be considering "Dive into Python" carefully - being in the education biz I'm looking for a really good Python book for students.
Re:Python (Score:1)
I recently completed reading it from cover to cover, and while I didn't yet even code the examples myself (I plan to do that on my second read), every chapter felt like a series of revelations.
Highly recommended. Combine that with other books (Dive into Python looks very nice) and a few extra resources, and you and/or your students