> > I refuse to give in to this evil ploy. I will NOT install it. I will NOT go through the tutorial. I will NOT start learning yet another language.
> >
> > Nope. I'm going to go work on some perl scripts.
>
> Learning to program and learning new programming languages aren't even close to the same thing. Initially, the former comes with learning the latter, so they get confused.
>
> I learned Python in an afternoon. I'm not bragging -- that's simply all it takes for somebody who has already learned the more hefty lessons of learning how to engineer software at all. The hard part of programming is learning how to think logically, arrange and encapsulate units of functionality, and keeping in mind issues of extensibility and maintainability. Those issues transcend language boundaries.
>
> What I'm saying is, if you stuck it to perl and started playing with python, you wouldn't be throwing away everything you've learned so far and starting over -- you'd just be continuing to learn computer programming and adding another language to your repertoire of ways to employ those skills.
>
> Changing the subject, as a language, Python impresses me. Perl is insidiously obfuscated and non-intuitive. What I love about Perl is the amazing freedom you have in it. What I hate about Perl is the amazing freedom you have in it. (The kind of freedom Perl gives you tends to be the freedom to write bad code -- which is fine for quickie scripts but not good at all for larger applications. Like, say, RinkChat, grumblegrumble.) That and the fact that unless you're careful, whatever you write will be completely unreadable.
>
> Python is a little more ordered, intuitive, and a LOT simpler with regard to syntax. It would probably force you to adopt good programming practices better than perl does (which is not at all), although not so well as, say, Java does. The more I read about it, the more I like it.

I concede all of your points, and honestly, I do like the look of Python, which is why I downloaded the interpreter in the first place. The simple fact that I was able to read and understand the simple game that you wrote without a second thought exemplifies your point nicely, as well as being good evidence for the simplicity of Python.

Mostly, my problem is that I have a bad habit of learning too many different ways to do things (in this case, programming languages) and never get around to doing anything with them. The afternoon I could spend learning Python could also be spent writing something useful in perl, and that's the trap I'm trying to avoid falling into.

The only thing that gives me pause is the consideration that Python might allow me to do all the things I want to do in perl, but more quickly, because the code is easier to work with. Until I actually learn how powerful Python is, though, I can't make that judgement.

A good example/question comes to mind: In your opinion, how easy would it be to write that SSI interpreter script in Python? It's fresh in my mind right now, since I spent an hour or two on Friday rewriting it, in a clean module form (as opposed to the sloppy script form it was in before.) Next step with that one is to try and do an OO version -- should be pretty easy, I think (hope).