> >OK, I'll shut up now, and if anyone wants to debate the relative merits
> >of Perl and Python, please let's do it off-list.
>
> Uh, observations as to what tools are favored for one-off programming
> tasks, against relevant text files, would seem worthwhile to me.  Are
> there any Regina advocates out there?

I did not mean to denigrate alternatives; of the languages in which I am
comfortable, Perl is the most convenient and obviously applicable to this
problem. I don't know either Python or Regina. (My most comfortable
programming languages started in 1967 with Fortran IV, and evolved through
various assembly languages, Pascal, Basic, C, etc. I generally only tackle a
new one when a new environment or a new type of problem demands.)

Esther Feldman's suggestion to use Excel is possibly more useful, to the
person who asked the original question, than any programming language. If he
has to find a programmer, then the programmer should use whatever is readily
available and seems suitable for addressing the problem.

> "In spite of all this I will answer 'Yes' if asked, "Is Python what Perl
> should have been?" Python is cleaner, easier to learn, and far more
> suited to large programming projects than is Perl.

I'll take a look at it. But I have seen this type of claim before, and this
sort of thing as well:

> Python is executable pseudocode
> Perl is executable line noise

The last language I had to learn that came with that sort of billing was
Modula-8, which was the programming language destined to take over the
entire world, and to be used for everything from systems programming on up,
forever and ever amen.

You'll forgive me if I'm more interested in results than PR.

Hal Keen