What makes Python a good scripting language?

Question

If you have to choose a scripting language, why would you choose Python?

Answer 1

Because it has clean and agile syntax, it's fast, well documented, well connected to C, has a lot of libraries, it's intuitive, and it's not perl.

Answer 2

because it helps you in RAD, its the best language for writing opensource software

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Answer 3

I would try a number of "scripting" languages (as well as some languages with good static type inference), and then select the language(s) that best fit the problem.

This may be for a number of reasons including, but not limited to: Runtime targets and performance (as dictated by functional requirements), library support (don't re-invent the wheel all the time), existing tool support, existing integration support (if X supports Y, is it real feasible to get X to support Z just to use Z?), and most important to a subjective question: personal choice and zealot fanaticism :)

The term "scripting language" is absolutely horrid -- unless perhaps you really DO mean SH or MIRC "script". The phrase "dynamically typed language" is a much better qualifier.

Answer 4

Depends on what you mean by "scripting language". If you mean I'm going to be extensively typing it in at a shell prompt, I want the mysterious but utter conciseness of Bash or zsh; if you mean I'm going to have to embed it in 2000 apps in each of which it will typically be used for "customization" scripts of 2 or 3 lines, I probably want the minimalist simplicity of Lua (I may not like programming in Lua all that much, but 2-3 lines is indeed "scripting" more than "programming", and the near-zero cost of embedding Lua in anything will then dominate).

Python, like Perl or Ruby, is mostly used to write MUCH more substantial "scripts" (impossible to distinguish from "programs", except maybe by total bigots;-) -- in which case, very different considerations apply wrt "real" scripting languages such as bash or zsh, or lua or tcl for a different definition of "scripting language". Basically, if what you want is a dynamically (but strongly) typed language, with full capacity to scale up to very large software systems, and yet quite good at "playing with others"... then you surely have a particularly weird definition of "scripting", my friend!-) But that's the arena where Python, Ruby and Perl mostly play -- and where one could debate one against the other (but any one of them would crush any other popular language I know -- yeah, I've known and loved and used rexx, scheme, Smalltalk, and many many others, but none could hold a candle to the Big Three I just mentioned in this arena!-).

But unless you clarify your terminology, "scripting language" remains an empty, meaning-free sound, and any debate surrounding it utterly useless and void of significance.

Answer 5

I think it depends on your definition of scripting language. There are (at least) two camps. One is that scripting language should be embeddable, so the core should be small (like Lua or Tcl). The second camp is scripting for system administration, and Perl is definitely in this camp.

Python is a general programming language, not particularly in either camp (but also not unsuitable), probably most useful for writing small or medium sized programs.

Answer 6

I haven't programmed in python before but my guess would be the libraries available and the size of the userbase.

Answer 7

It's very intuitive, has a ton of libraries, helps you whip up a script VERY FAST. You can use it for small projects or big projects and can compile into an EXE for windows, an APP for mac or into a cross platform application.

I has possibly the cleanest syntax of any language I have seen to date and can do everything from adding numbers to system calls to reading various different types of files. Hell, you can even do web programming with it.

I see no reason why I would advise against python... ever.