PHP, JavaScript, Ruby, Perl, Python, and Tcl Today: The State of the Scripting Universe
Three years ago, Lynn Greiner at CIO Magazine, interviewed the big cheeses responsible for the popular scripting languages PHP, Perl, Tcl, Python, Ruby and JavaScript to find out where the languages were headed. In this follow-up discussion, she asks the dynamic language luminaries what has changed since then.
I started a new knowledge category today called CompuScriptology. So what is CompuScriptology? It’s basically the analysis, research, study and observation of dynamic computer languages, sometimes known as dynamic scripting languages (as compared to static or compiled languages). It involves the comparing and contrasting of various computer language functions and syntactical elements — for computer languages such as JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Rebol, and Ruby (in my case).
I was thinking about using the word Scriptology, but a gentleman (Dr. Adam Blatner) was already using the word Scriptology to talk about the Lore of Writing Systems and Alphabets. Not to mention, that the FileMaker people have a website for FileMaker templates called Scriptology also.
Since I’m very interested in multiple computer languages, some people might call me a polyglot. I was thinking about calling the new knowledge category PolyCompuScriptology, but that failed my terse test.
Have you tried BlogPulse charts and graphs to track and analyze what’s behind the buzzwords?
Here is an example showing the keywords python, ruby, and wordpress (time-line is the past 6 months). Looks like the WordPress spike is beginning to fade, and I wonder what that means?
Here is another BlogPulse trend chart showing what everyone was talking about last week. Keywords/Phrases : Virginia Tech, Cho, gun control.
Now that we are on this topic, let me say that my deepest sympathy goes out to all the families affected by this horrific tragedy (mass murder, suicide); my prayers for peace and love continue unto God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, and I recommend that everyone read and meditate on Psalm 4 and Psalm 23 this week.
An unofficial Python Tutorial is at growing in the InfoGami wiki system. It has a nice layout and the code examples are easy to read. See for instance the section on Python Modules, or the Brief Tour of the Standard Python Library. I just really appreciate it when the page layout is so clean and easy to read, code examples sprinkled like spice — which makes this technical documentation for Python easy to study.