[IamBren]

I generally agree with your response. My only slight irritation is with how you wrote out the Python code. It looks a bit...uglier? and more verbose than it needs to be, especially compared to the others. This looks better to me:

  from commands import getoutput
  if getoutput('which bash') == '/bin/bash':
      do_stuff()

Although if your goal is to determine if e.g. bash is located in /bin, then I would do:

bash:

  if [ -e '/bin/bash' ];
  then
      do_stuff
  fi

(I don't know Ruby.)

Python:

  import os.path
  if os.path.exists('/bin/bash'):
      do_stuff()

I know I'm just splitting hairs. :)

[lobster_johnson]

The point was definitely not the logic of the examples! Rather to show three core similarities/differences:

* Ruby has bashisms like `foo`; Python requires a function call.

* Ruby has a nesting syntax similar to bash with if/end; Python is whitespace-sensitive.

* Ruby has method calls without parentheses, similar to bash commands, whereas Python requires them.

> Although if your goal is to determine if e.g. bash is located in /bin,

Actually, that was not the goal at all. The goal (which, again, is irrelevant to my point) was to determine if the PATH-resolved executable binary "foo" was in a specific location. Rest assured that I would not use "which" in a real-life app. :-)

(Thanks for commands.getoutput(), my Python is rusty.)