[wellylug] Non-standard languages on Linux

[jfouhy at paradise.net.nz]

Quoting "E.Chalaron" <e.chalaron at xtra.co.nz>:

> I most certainly missed the point, but what are the advantages of Ruby
> or Python compared to Pascal or C, C++ ?

Some advantages of Python:

 - Everything is an object, including functions, classes, etc.  This is really
super (which is why it's first on my list).  I know you can pass function
pointers and things in other languages, but python approaches the ease of
functional languages here.
 - More tricks from functional languges: list comprehensions (groovy),
generators (groovier).
 - Syntax is very clean.
 - Everything is dynamically typed.  Some people might object to this, but it
has its uses.  It means you can implement new objects that match an API and pass
them to library functions without problems.  You can also use introspection so
you can examine objects to see what methods they support.
 - Garbage collection.
 - more...

-- 
John.