1.9. Comparing Python

Python has been compared with many languages. One reason is that it provides many features found in other languages. Another reason is that Python itself is derived from many other languages, including ABC, Modula-3, C, C++, Algol-68, SmallTalk, and Unix shell and other scripting languages, to name a few. Python is a virtual “greatest hits” where van Rossum combined the features he admired most in the other languages he had studied and brought them together for our programming sanity.

However, more often than not, since Python is an interpreted language, you will find that most of the comparisons are with Perl, Java, Tcl, and JavaScript. Perl is another scripting language which goes well beyond the realm of the standard ...

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