My main coding language is C. Perl is my "Swiss Army Knife" coding language. Before I encountered Perl, I used a combination of awk and shell scripting to accomplish what I would now use Perl to accomplish. Being experienced with C and awk, Perl "felt" kind of natural to me, despite being a little strange. Using Perl made it easier to create and maintain tools that help me get my main work done.

Ruby seems ok. But I've only used it for a few projects where Ruby was already being used, so I have very little experience with it. I do find it more "comfortable" than Python (but not as comfortable as C and Perl).

Python is easier to read, but, in my experience, not actually easier to code in. Python has a big trap: Indentation. Program structure in Python is controled by indentation. The reason this is a problem is because the indentation you see in your editor might not be the same as what Python sees. With Python code, any time spaces and tabs are mixed, there is trouble waiting. Best to use only spaces and make sure your editor does not compress spaces in to tabs. Alternately, use only tabs and make sure your editor does not expand them.

I've used many coding languages for various reasons. Personally, I'm most comfortable with C and Perl. When I have a reason, I sometimes choose a different language. When I have to, I can handle other languages.

In reply to Re: Honest question about Perl, Python and Ruby by RonW
in thread Honest question about Perl, Python and Ruby by madM

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