Pike > Python?

I’ve started reading the Pike tutorial tonight out of pure curiosity and something that struck me was their comparison to Python. Now in all fairness, I don’t think they’re trying to say that Pike is actually greater than Python (sorry, the title is a bit misleading), but they are making some bold statements! Keep in mind that I’m a bit of a Python fanboy.

Programs written in Python look very different from Pike programs, but Python and Pike are similar when it comes to ideas and use. Python is more widely used and has more libraries available. Pike on the other hand is faster, has a more advanced type system, and has better support for object-oriented programming. Pike’s more C++-like syntax makes it easier to get started with for programmers who know C++, C or Java.

Now, I’m in no position to say this is true or not. I’ve only started reading about Pike tonight. Here is an example of Pike’s syntax.

int main()
{
  write("Hi there! What's your name?\n");
  string name = Stdio.stdin->gets();
  write("Nice to meet you, " + name + "!\n");
  return 0;
}

Not sure I really like it, but wth, PHP looks much worse at times!

If there are anyone out there that has worked with Pike before, it would be quite interesting to hear your opinion! It does seem Pike is not as well supported as Python / PHP / Ruby…

4 Comments to "Pike > Python?"

• Gavin said: On 06/24/2008 at 9:28 am

  How does that look any better than PHP? And why use pike over Python or Ruby? What does it bring to the table that more established and popular languages don’t? Can you clarify “better support for Object Orientated programming.”

  I did check the pike about page but it only really says that it is fast. That’s it !?

  Gav

• Stii said: On 06/24/2008 at 10:03 am

  Hey Gav, exactly what I’d like to know Hopefully someone with Pike experience can elaborate for us.

• Charl van Niekerk said: On 06/24/2008 at 6:30 pm

  Sorry I shouldn’t actually comment here as I knew bugger-all about pike until approx. 1 min back when I started reading this post.

  I know of a lot of “strange” languages (like Groovy, etc) each claiming to have their own advantages. I’m sure they do, but who cares, right? At the end of the day it’s about getting the job done, if that means writing in PHP, Python, Ruby, or whatever, just do it.

  In the earlier days, there were only a few languages each with major strong and weak points. However these days it feels almost a bit like nitpicking because every second oke has some opinion about what’s the “perfect” language (if there is such a thing).

  These pike okes seem to be joining those ranks imho.

• Jeff said: On 08/22/2008 at 2:06 am

  Pike is fast. In the language shootout, it regularly comes in ahead of the other interpreted languages. In some cases, it beats compiled languages. In terms of speed, it is at least as fast (in most cases) as Lua.

  It also has a very comprehensive library, although its documentation is terrible. In fact, it comes with a mini scheme implementation and a Python tokenizer

  It has a few real advantages over Python; it has a useful type system (static types and variants, including a “mixed” type, which allows for any type), it has real thread support on most platforms, and it has lambdas that are more than single expressions.

  What I really *miss* from Python are generators and comprehensions.

  I have not done an awful lot of Pike development, but it’s a powerful language for exploratory programming. The few apps I have written tend to be solid and run like blazes, too.

Spit it out!

Filed in: Programming by: Stii