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Is Python the Future of Programming?

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Re: Is Python the Future of Programming?

#31

Post by mindB »

mayniac wrote: post #17

Python is stupidly simple and that's the reason I use it for 99% of my work (netsec/forensics). I introduced my ex to it for her dissertation in astro-physics. It took her under a week to mainly self-learn and start writing scripts with numpy and matplotlib, and it was her first language. The code wasn't good by professional standards, but it did the job. I cannot think of any programming/scripting language which can…

Not saying that python great for this, but this exact use case is literally what matlab was created for. I'd take python over matlab any day, but people have been writing crappy matlab scripts for their dissertations for a long time now.

Re: Is Python the Future of Programming?

#32

Post by zzzcpan »

mayniac wrote: post #17

Python is stupidly simple and that's the reason I use it for 99% of my work (netsec/forensics). I introduced my ex to it for her dissertation in astro-physics. It took her under a week to mainly self-learn and start writing scripts with numpy and matplotlib, and it was her first language. The code wasn't good by professional standards, but it did the job. I cannot think of any programming/scripting language which can…

Scripting languages have that property. Some are even more gradually learnable, like Perl, where you don't need to be exposed to anything from the language beyond what you want to do and it will run your code.

Re: Is Python the Future of Programming?

#33

Post by Walkman »

nicodjimenez wrote: post #24

Python does have two growth vectors going for it right now: 1) Deep learning / data science works really well in Python 2) Lambda functions are really great in Python... maybe people will choose to write servers out of Lambda functions instead of writing high performance servers in Go - who knows? Those are big areas, but still a small percentage of all programming work falls into those two categories.

Sorry, but you don't have no clue what you're talking about.

Python is an imperative language by nature, and lamdba is very uncomfortable to use for anything than a simple expression. You can use functional elements up to a certain degree, but it will be a pain if you try to force it to be a functional language; you simply can't go very far with it.

Re: Is Python the Future of Programming?

#35

Post by rcfox »

repsilat wrote: post #27
nicodjimenez wrote: post #24

Python does have two growth vectors going for it right now: 1) Deep learning / data science works really well in Python 2) Lambda functions are really great in Python... maybe people will choose to write servers out of Lambda functions instead of writing high performance servers in Go - who knows? Those are big areas, but still a small percentage of all programming work falls into those two categories.

> Lambda functions are really great in Python Hah, if you had told anyone that five years ago they would have been very confused. "What are you talking about? Lambdas in Python are horribly neutered..." Back to what you actually meant, I think that lambda functions will get simpler to use in every language, and I think JS will extend a lead there even though I prefer Python as a language. I should get my "microservic…

I must be stuck in the past. What's great about lambda functions in Python?

Re: Is Python the Future of Programming?

#36

Post by noir_lord »

hexane360 wrote: post #10
ctvo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m having trouble thinking of a dynamic language in Python’s class (Ruby, JS, even PHP) that fails your use case here.

The implicit part you're missing is that Python is just nice to work with in a way that JS and PHP aren't (I don't have Ruby experience). If there's a bunch of languages that meet the baseline functionality, why not choose the most ergonomic of the bunch?

Pretty much and Python has massive library availability and consistently good libraries (PHP and JS have lots of libraries but the quality is...meh and to an extent they silo much more than in Python - though both languages have at least improved their (PHP with composer and PSR/FIGS and JS with npm/ES6 imports)

Re: Is Python the Future of Programming?

#38

Post by oddity »

alfin3 wrote: post #6

Wait, wasn't Java the future of programming?

For the 90s, yes. That future happened and now we're looking at a new one. For as much as I dislike the language and most of the software built on the JVM, I do think it helped advance the world of application-level software development to a better place.

Without it, people would likely have built the same memory-hungry, slow, and bloated software, but in C++ with all its added risks, lessened portability, and none of its advantages (except maybe better start-up times). There are more problems that need fixing, but Java at least solved some of them.

Edit: Java, and other languages and systems like it, really. Java had the advantage that it was familiar to C++ programmers.

Re: Is Python the Future of Programming?

#39

Post by oddity »

bodas wrote: post #25
oddity wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of access modifiers is to get in the way. They're ways of allowing developers of one part of the source to control what the path of least resistance is for the users of that code. If you expose everything, someone will write code that depends against it and make it harder for you to improve or change it in the future. Tossing in roadblocks helps guide users to the better long-term path. It doesn't really ma…

If you are working with a large team, you need a statically typed language. Access modifiers are the least of your problems, the lack of refactoring support is a much bigger problem.

I agree, but I was focusing on a single aspect and explaining why its value might not be apparent to the parent commenter. Really, the same argument can be adapted to other contentious features of popular static languages.

Re: Is Python the Future of Programming?

#40

Post by gerdesj »

jzwinck wrote: post #19
jaequery wrote: post #9

Python is one of the simplest language you can learn. It is really nicely designed and executed. If simplicity is the goal, Python has that in spades.

Lua is far simpler, and still easy to learn. Yet it's powerful enough to be used in "real" projects (e.g. Photoshop Lightroom).

"Lua is far simpler" - citation needed 8)

At some stage I will have to get to grips with Lua (Mediawki) but I believe your comment is completely arse about face. No, I wont give any more justification than my assertion.

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