Well ... for what it's worth ... i purchased the Python Cookbook recently and, where i find the Perl and PHP Cookbooks fun and informative, the Python Cookbook has been rather dull and tedious. I will say that i would rather use Python over Perl or C for threads, but dealing with Python's types is PITA after being spoiled by Perl. Python's sockets are nice too, as well as Python GUI's ... but when it comes to CGI, XML, system administration, databases, and data munging, i think Perl is the better choice. Still, i recommend the Python Cookbook - if you have to code Python, it is better to have it than to not have it. ;)

Re: one-liners - i think that one-liners are a good way to show a Python programmer why Python takes longer. The idea of one-liners is that you don't have to save one-liners somewhere and then search for them later - you write them on the spot, ad lib. They are true throw-away scripts, much like Python coders use the command-line interpreter to test code. The more one-liners you write, the better you get at coming up with one-liners on the spot. I'm not saying that one cannot write one-liners in Python ...

python -c 'print [x for x in ("just","another","python","hacker")]'
[download]

but without options like -n, -p, -M, or -a, Python just doesn't cut the mustard regarding one-liners. Since all these options do is basically add canned code, the only reason i can think of why Python does not offer similar functionality is because the Python camp did not even know that such functionality is useful and desired.

Now, if i were a manager i would probably choose Python, but only if my programmers were not skilled enough to use a powerful and dangerous language like Perl. I was not ready for Perl until about 4 years after i was introduced to it, but now there seems to be no going back. :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)