Good read. Comments are interesting as well. Since I started with Python and then switched to Perl, I guess this means I'll have to learn Haskell now. BTW when I made the switch I noticed immediately that I found Perl far more 'comfortable' then Python. I later came to the conclusion that there was a relationship kind of thing; if you liked/loved 'C' then you would feel the same about Perl. If you liked/loved 'C++' then you would feel the same about Python. Absolutely no evidence beyond the intuitive here just something that came to me...
I went from Perl to Python and back again over the span of about ten years (with lots of other languages before and in between). I like them both, but Perl is also more comfortable for me. Ruby maybe even moreso, but I've never done any large projects in Ruby, so I can't say for sure. But I do know that when I write a few lines of Perl, even after ten years, I tend to include a few syntax errors...when I was learning Ruby I was often stunned by how many lines of code I could write between syntax errors. It's probably an order of magnitude higher, and something I've never experienced before. Python, I found to have roughly parity with Perl, which many Pythonistas find shocking. But I agree that there are different types of folks, though I don't know that one can do the comparison with C and C++...maybe C and Java.
Well I know Perl pretty well and am not starting to pick up Python. I like Perl so we'll see how I feel about Python. I'll get back with my experiences.
Mostly interesting, though some of his assertions are somewhat questionable. Like saying that Perl5 takes its OO style from Python. I'd like to see some citations on that, as I don't find them at all similar (beyond both being object systems in a dynamic language). The JavaScript module pattern (which obviously came later) feels more like Perl 5 objects to me. Likewise for some Lisp and Scheme object systems that make use of innate closure support to build the object system from primitives rather than building it in--Perl objects are effectively hashes with almost no new core language features (bless, and the new special variable @ISA, primarily).