Guido also posted a solution to comp.lang.perl. ( In python, that is. )
[ Anyone want it re-posted to the mailing list, or is that redundant
for this audience. ]
You might also want to post your version ( and your comparison of
perl vs. python ). Then again, you might not. Some of the perl folks
seem to have pretty thin skin when it comes to criticism.
[ There were some references to perl critics as "ankle-biters" !
Hey - even N.Wirth had to try his hand at designing a half-dozen
or so languages ... and most of the complaints about Pascal were
due to the fact that folks were trying to use it for things it
was never designed for in the first place! ... But I don't think
Larry Wall himself is as thin skinned as some of his defenders. ]
Another thread for discussion is:
What is missing from python that is in perl.
( Or library - but major features only, i.e. something that is a
real "application stopper" ! )
My nomination:
pack/unpack to/from binary structures ( for reading binary files )
and the python equivalent of 'h2ph' to convert ".h" files into
a "record description".
( I don't *think* there is a way to do this in python. Correct me
if I'm wrong. )
Any suggestions for a syntax for that routine any different than
the perl equivalent ? If we exclude longints, the major difference
I see is dealing with possibly recursive structures: lists, tuples
and dictionaries. Should the be disallowed ? ( Probably dictionaries
should be disallowed. ) Should they require a nested format specification ?
How about wildcard lengths for homogeneous sequences ? ( which might
suggest a 'length of previous/next sequence in bytes' specifier ? )
- Steve