I'm a veteran Perl hacker, but lately I've been looking at Python, and liking what I see.

Many people are attracted by the Python community, but I have to say that I was initially quite put off by it. I used to joke that I could never be a true Python programmer, because I don't hate Perl.

But the language design is compelling nonetheless, and I'm starting to think that Perl 6 -- which initially had me quite jazzed -- has gone into a permanent stall. (On the other hand, Parrot, the Perl 6 virtual machine, shows real promise; it may well have a life beyond the Perl 6 project, and become an important weapon in the Open Source arsenal quite apart from its original intended use.)

What won me over was that O'Reilly & Associates finally published a couple of really good Python books -- The Python Cookbook and Python in a Nutshell -- and I also discovered Mark Pilgrim's superb online text, Dive Into Python.

Well, DIP might no longer be online only: Apress has agreed to publish a hardcopy edition of DIP; as part of the deal, Pilgrim has committed to update his book (which he never really completed, and which had gone without updates for some time). It will remain available in downloadable form under the GNU Free Documentation License.

I highly recommend Mark's book, though with the qualification that it is meant for experienced programmers, not complete beginners. I plan on buying a paper copy as soon as it's available.