I'm self taught and most of what I've been working on for the past several years has been entirely in Perl and Java. I've noticed that I can code about 5 times faster in Perl than Java, in part because I feel like whenever I want to do something in Java, I have to create an object, do a few preperatory things, then do what I need, but in Perl, I just call the routine.
Java, however, does much better at cross platform apps, especially if I need a GUI (I find Swing easy to use). I need to write a setting editor which basically consists of a GUI with a lot of checkboxes, radio buttons, and option select lists. I originally had something to do this in Javascript, but Javascript was not strong enough to let me create data structures to keep track of the data. I had to store it in 3d arrays, which was hard to keep up with. I was planning on writing the new setting editor in Java for several reasons, including the ability to create my own objects to store groups of settings. I also can write it so it'll run on a computer by itself, or as an applet with very little extra work. That's a benefit, since it means it can be run from anywhere through a Java enabled browser and a username and password. It can also be run on a system where it's been installed without using a browser (either way, it reads and writes the settings from a URL). Someone on a mailing list I'm on has suggested that I look into Python, and use Jython to compile it. I see that I can write applications and applets in Python (but I haven't seen references to being able to write one application just once and have it work as both). I also know Python is a higher level than Java (a few people I know say it's almost like writing pseudo code). At this time I don't know Python (I've looked at some sample code and I'm still getting used to loops and if statements without closing braces!). What I'm trying to determine is 1) if it's relatively easy to write a program to work as an application AND an applet (depending on how it's called), 2) If it'll handle the networking to read what amounts to web pages full of setting info and write that back in POST statements without problems from the user's point of view and easily from the programmer's point of view, 3) What coding time and difficulty is like in Python compared to, most specifically, Java and Perl, 4) Is it easy for me to interface Java and Python classes seamlessly, and 5) (I realize only I can answer this for sure, but opinions and experience of others would be a help!) Is Python easy enough and fast enough to code in that it'd be worth me taking time to learn it and doing the project Python instead of Java? Any help, thoughts, comments, and such are appreciated! Thank you! Hal -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
