Re: From Lua to Python?

[Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@...>]

On 1 July 2017 at 00:09, Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@majumdar.org.uk> wrote:
> I am thinking about moving to Python in my project where I am
> currently using Lua as the scripting language. My reason is a
> pragmatic one - Python is becoming popular in the Financial sector,
> and is the language most people my project targets will be familiar
> with. Additionally some of the tools I use - such as Google's GRPC and
> Protocol Buffers - all support Python.
>

Strange though it may sound, I had never bothered to learn Python
until now. Still early days but so far my thoughts are that maybe both
Lua and Python have a place in my project. Maybe Lua is the better
embedded language, but Python is the more versatile scripting
language. Too early to tell though.

An interesting contrast is that in Python an assignment to a variable
creates a local variable - it seems to work in the opposite way
compared to Lua. You have to explicitly say you want a global
variable.

Some recent language features appear to have detailed rationale
documents referenced in the manual - this is great for understanding
what problem was being solved, what options were considered and why
the design is what it is. The sheer amount of effort involved in
writing these proposals must be huge. Like Linux, Python appears to
have successfully fostered a huge community of developers who work on
improving Python.

Regards
Dibyendu