As some who teaches Python I think one of the features that make python popular is that it can be very close to written language.
That means if used right, it can feel very natural.
Ask HN: Why did Python win?
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Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#102long time ago (2007??), GvR asked in the maillist, "what topic to talk about in next coming PyCon"
what i posted/suggested then was something in the lines "how to make Python not to be next Java, i.e. turn into carreer-language". of course nobody noticed.
Well, seems python did become next java. kind-a. i cannot decide is it good or bad.
Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#103Whilst the design of Ruby is far superior, Python has a wider range of data structures which may explain why it managed to gain a foothold in the scientific world. Both are multi-paradigm languages but procedural Python is also a little more idiomatic than its equivalent in Ruby which maybe makes Python easier for scientists who don't want to go all-in learning a more elegant language. Pretty soon in Python's rise it became all about libraries. Ruby never took the scientific world that seriously until it was too late.
Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#104When I first encountered Python, it was as an alternative to Perl. Given the choice between Perl and Python, I think it's clear why the latter won out.
> When I first encountered Python, it was as an alternative to Perl. Me too I am amazed that Python won out against Perl Perl is much easier to use. Does not have the incredibly irritating treatment of whitespace Perl was a disrupter, whereas Python was "computer sciencey". A false dichotomy but it really mattered to people
I loved Perl. I _loved_ it. It was so much fun. It felt like vim in how you could guess weird corners of the language.
But every reason that made it fun is also an actual reason why it's a nightmare unless you are very strict in how its used. Strict on things like whitespace.
Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#105My anecdotal experience:
I found it really easy to adopt and use as a non-programmer. I ran out of rows in my excel spreadsheet, and needed something that would ingest my spreadsheet quickly. It took me one line of code to import, and then one line to export.
I was quickly off to the races with deep data analysis and felt it worked so much better than excel as the calculations were more readable and reproducible.
I learned Ruby for Ruby on Rails before this, but it just isn't as quick and easy.
Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#106One thing I think contributed that I've never seen mentioned: It's a lot easier to write unreadable Ruby than unreadable Python, especially if you consider novice readers. This affects maintenance and contributions to gems/pypi.
Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#107Python beat Ruby because it's boring technology, whereas Ruby prides itself on being as clever as possible. Take a large application written with Django vs the equivalent Rails app. Even if the Django app was written by mediocre engineers and their Rubyist counterparts were very smart, it's probably much easier to spot the footguns in the Django app. The cognitive load of the average Rails monolith is almost unbearable to non Rails experts.
Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#108The competition in the early oughts was Perl (and PHP, but sticking with general purpose languages). Python was widely seen as "better" in some abstract sense while Perl was what everybody used for their day job.
Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#109Python ended up 'specializing' in data contexts, thanks to Numpy / Pandas, and as a result, ended up becoming the first exposure to programming than anyone doing data stuff had. That was millions of people. In that space, it had no competitors. Ruby ended up 'specializing' in web dev, because of Rails. But when Node and React came out, Ruby on Rails had to compete with Nodejs + React / MERN as a way of building a web…
To add to your comment, the web space was also already very crowded, with PHP, C#/ASP, whatever Java people were using, Django, etc. Rails has always been fairly niche compared to giants like PHP.
Re: Ask HN: Why did Python win?
#110Python ended up 'specializing' in data contexts, thanks to Numpy / Pandas, and as a result, ended up becoming the first exposure to programming than anyone doing data stuff had. That was millions of people. In that space, it had no competitors. Ruby ended up 'specializing' in web dev, because of Rails. But when Node and React came out, Ruby on Rails had to compete with Nodejs + React / MERN as a way of building a web…
Numpy is certainly amazing, but there are tons of competitors in the data/scientific space, which pure "A-type" data scientists tend to prefer: R, SSPS, Matlab... The difference is that Python doesn't entirely suck as a general-purpose language. Sure, you might have better options, but it's still reasonable to write almost anything in Python. Other scripting languages like Ruby, JS and Lua are probably a little bit b…
>> R, SSPS, Matlab...
I'd immediately throw out "competitors" that cost hundreds of dollars to use. https://www.mathworks.com/pricing-licensing.html Academic pricing is $275/yr and normal is almost a thousand a year. Then you pay for modules on top.