[BiO BB] Python or Perl

[Henry Lenzi]

On 1/14/07, tim <timmcilveen at talktalk.net> wrote:
> Hi,
> I am a final year Molecular Sciences student (chemistry and molecular
> biology) and am trying to teach myself some bioinformatics programming.
> My history is in Basic from years ago. Because of this, I find Python a
> bit easier to understand. Having said this, is biopython widely used, or
> would I be as well persevering with learning Perl, and then bioperl
> which seems to have  a bigger following?
>

Here's my 2 cents: you'll find more books for Perl. As a beginner,
that's important. If I were you, I would look at Perl. You want to
learn by examples.
 There's also more of a tradition in Perl, I believe (but tradition is
meaningless).

> Just one more question. Are most people involved in bioinformatics
> programming  working in industry/academia , are are there  people
> involved in open access , internet based projects? - just curious!
>
> Tim
>

I only know people from academia. Never heard of open access, internet
based projects. This probably has to do with the fact that
bioinformatics tries to tackle problems with real biological/medical
significance. Usually, you work in a team with biologists or doctors.

Cheers,

Henry