Hello Jos,

Thanks for taking the time to response :) Yes it did help a bit, 
although it didn't make my choice any easier ;) Since even here people 
have different opinions about python and perl as in preference. I 
decided to take Steven Haigh's advice and learn both, that way I can 
find out for myself which I like better. Is it true of what I've heard, 
that once you know one language it's easier to learn a second? So say I 
first learn python, then it would be easier for me to learn perl 
afterwards or the other way around?

On 2016-12-30 09:58, Jos Vos wrote:
> Hi Maarten,
> 
> On Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 08:59:36AM +0100, Maarten wrote:
> 
>> Saw this discussion and found it interesting, got a somewhat half on
>> topic question. I've been trying to decide on a language to learn,
>> python and perl both stood out. There seems to be various discussions 
>> of
>> why one is better than the other, and the pro's and con's of both. 
>> From
>> what I've seen perl has been around longer than python and there are
>> plenty of places to ask for help and lots of perl modules to use in 
>> your
>> code. Python on the other hand seems newer, also has modules(probably
>> less than perl), and has quite bit of community around too. However
>> lately I've been seeing that there are more python projects than perl,
>> making me think python might be the better one to go for. So I am more
>> wondering what peoples opinions on this mailing list are when it comes
>> to python or perl, that way I can consider the opinion of people who
>> have been programming for a while before I make a decision to what I 
>> am
>> going to do ;)
> 
> This is an absolute no-brainer: go for Python.  There are IMHO many
> reasons for that, some are subjective, some are objective.  My personal
> prediction is that the use of Perl will decrease during the time and
> that Perl 6 will never gain a significant "market share" in
> programming land.  I think even part of the Perl community "fears" the
> same.
> 
> See also the TIOBE index (http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/) although
> do not consider this table to be a reflection of good taste ;-).
> 
> And go for Python 3.  Although Python 2 and 3 are almost compatible
> (which Perl 5 and 6 are definitely not, which is part of the problem),
> when starting to learn better stay with Python 3 from the beginning.
> 
> Because you asked: I've been programming for 30+ years (and using
> UNIX for the same amount of time) and have used a large number of
> languages (of course including Perl).  Python has become my favorite
> language, although for some things I have to switch to C or even JS.
> 
> Hope this helps a bit.