I’m looking for a Perl replacement, and at this point it looks like it might be Python. I like its compact, readable syntax, and I was very impressed with the quality of the documentation it comes with (in PDF, HTML,
and LaTeX formats, no less). Python kind of reminds me of AppleScript in that it should be easy for beginners to read and tweak short scripts that others have written.
The other language I’m considering is Ruby. It’s favored by several people whose opinions I highly respect, and is probably the most trendy “mainstream” language these days. I like that it’s pure OO (already, Python’s function/method distinction is bothering me) and that you can add methods classes. Blocks are nice. However, it’s currently second in the running because it seems too heavily influenced by Perl.
