[Info-vax] Most popular application programming languages on VMS ?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2019-01-10, Kevin Monceaux <Kevin at RawFedDogs.net> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 10, 2019 at 02:19:57AM -0000, Simon Clubley via Info-vax wrote:
>  
>> I use "limited" in the sense of what you can use Perl/PHP for when
>> compared to Python.
>
> Since one can find modules on CPAN to do just about anything with Perl,
> I would hesitate to call it limited.  But I prefer Perl over Python.
> I've tried for years to develop a fondness for Python.  It hasn't
> happened yet.
>
>> Can Perl or PHP be directly integrated into an application in the
>> same way as Python can ?
>> 
>> https://docs.python.org/2/extending/embedding.html
>
> I haven't tried it with Perl, but from the documentation it looks like
> it can be:
>
>     https://PerlDoc.Perl.org/perlembed.html
>

Thank you for the link. That's what I was looking for and didn't know
if Perl (or PHP) had. I tried doing a search for all three (Python,
Perl and PHP) before posting and only turned up the link for Python
(which I already knew about).

Given that Perl has this ability to directly integrate into applications
as a scripting engine that indeed ends my opinion of it being "limited".

The question then becomes why is Python used directly as the scripting
engine in multiple applications I have encountered yet I have still to
see a single Perl based scripting engine in an application ?

I wonder if it's because Python comes across as being way easier for
non-professional programmers to learn when compared to Perl.

In terms of syntax difficulty, I would say Python was more like an
OO based Basic while Perl was more like a C++ language and the Python
style probably appeals more to the non-professional programmers using
some of these applications.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
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