Why Python over Ruby?
ghshephard: Speaking purely for myself, the only reason I switched from Perl to Python is I had a great deal of difficulty understanding the perl code (because I'm a poor perl scripter) I wrote after a day or so.  That, and the language construct HashOfArrays and ArrayOfHashes is exceedingly difficult to do in perl without referencing a manual.  The only (Edit: Alternative scripting) language really out there with mindshare in 2001 was Python.  I was able to read my python code.   I never had to look at a manual to implement complex data structures.  As a bonus, I can type "help(command) or dir(command) within the python CLI.  I've never really had the need to switch to another environment.  Ruby might actually be 10x better and faster for my typical tasks than python for all I know.