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Now we teach them Python, because the ecosystem and mindshare is there. But why didn't Perl or Ruby (or Tcl) win? It seems like Ruby didn't get the right ecosys

Now we teach them Python, because the ecosystem and mindshare is there. But why didn't Perl or Ruby (or Tcl) win? It seems like Ruby didn't get the right ecosystem around it, but Perl has PDL (which does seem to predate much of the Python scientific ecosystem), and had SWIG support before Python. Maybe there's a lesson there for the Rust scientific ecosystem?

worik 4y ago
> . But why didn't Perl or Ruby (or Tcl) win? That is a very good question. IIRC at the time Perl had a bad reputation because of the weird syntax "$%@" (not weird to shell programmers, so much, but they were weird...) Python was "object orientated" and from a computer scientist. Perl is very imperative and informal. Python felt to people like a real language, Perl did not. I am reaching for reasons as I was very disappointed that Python was the winner. I have never liked Python (personal taste - meaningful white space? Really?) and knew Perl very well. (Perl Vs. PHP is a different, much more interesting, and tragic story)