L
Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Just came across this article
<http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/20/1431259> from the
Ottawa Linux Symposium, which mentions (among other things) Martin Bligh's
presentation on the automated testing system used for the Linux kernel:
The test system is written in Python, and he discussed at length why
Python was chosen as the language for the system. He also spent some
time showing the audience test output from the system, and discussed why
other languages were not suitable for the test system.
He described Python as a language that meets the requirements for the
task because it is a language that is easy to modify and maintain, that
is not write-only, that has exception handling, is powerful but not
necessarily fast, is easy to learn, and has wide libraries of modules to
leverage.
He described Perl as a write-only language, and said that while people
can do amazing things with the shell, it is not appropriate for the
purpose. He said with a grin that he has a lot of respect for what
people can do in the shell, but none for choosing to do it that way in
the first place.
One thing he particularly likes about Python, he said, is its usage of
indentation. Unlike other languages, Bligh noted, Python is read by the
computer the same way as it is read by a person, resulting in fewer
bugs.
<http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/20/1431259> from the
Ottawa Linux Symposium, which mentions (among other things) Martin Bligh's
presentation on the automated testing system used for the Linux kernel:
The test system is written in Python, and he discussed at length why
Python was chosen as the language for the system. He also spent some
time showing the audience test output from the system, and discussed why
other languages were not suitable for the test system.
He described Python as a language that meets the requirements for the
task because it is a language that is easy to modify and maintain, that
is not write-only, that has exception handling, is powerful but not
necessarily fast, is easy to learn, and has wide libraries of modules to
leverage.
He described Perl as a write-only language, and said that while people
can do amazing things with the shell, it is not appropriate for the
purpose. He said with a grin that he has a lot of respect for what
people can do in the shell, but none for choosing to do it that way in
the first place.
One thing he particularly likes about Python, he said, is its usage of
indentation. Unlike other languages, Bligh noted, Python is read by the
computer the same way as it is read by a person, resulting in fewer
bugs.