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Python overtakes JavaScript as most questioned language on StackOverflow

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Re: Python overtakes JavaScript as most questioned language on StackOverflow

#131

Post by Animats »

This may reflect the recent addition of features to Python that were not really needed.

Another problem is "virtualenv". With more "version pinning" capability, there's an increasing tendency for Python programs to require their own special snowflake environment. I keep seeing install instructions which begin "Install virtualenv".

Package authors then worry less about backwards compatibility. That's the sort of thing that generates Stack Overflow questions of the form "Why isn't X working with Y".

Re: Python overtakes JavaScript as most questioned language on StackOverflow

#134

Post by stock_toaster »

bepvte wrote: post #129
coherentpony wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In Python, however, "string" and "list" far outweigh "dictionary" and "object", which probably says something about what kind of data structures Python developers deal with the most in their lives. This statement is not true at all. There are plenty of developers that don't post questions to or answer questions on StackOverlow.

Not saying anything about the parent comment, but the method of studying a large population by using a sample size is pretty common and time tested.

Yes, but SO participation is self selecting (self-selection bias), and is not a random sample of the larger union of non-SO and SO population.

Re: Python overtakes JavaScript as most questioned language on StackOverflow

#135

Post by pvg »

kijin wrote: post #78
jononor wrote: post #22

Gah, those wordclouds are horrible attempts of analyzing "what the questions are about". There is no attempt at normalizing term frequency, or removing non-informational words. So words like "get" and "using" get a high score. It may also seem that the text analyzed is the entire post including metadata. For instance "closed" and "duplicate" both show, maybe just be because of "closed as duplicate"... Maybe even incl…

Some of the simple words and their prominence can be amusingly informative, though. Take data structures for example. "string", "array", and "object" are about as equally prominent in both JavaScript and Ruby (where the dictionary is called "hash"). In Python, however, "string" and "list" far outweigh "dictionary" and "object", which probably says something about what kind of data structures Python developers deal wi…

Are people just casting everything to string because they don't want to deal with strict types?

No? How would that even work? It's not really a sensible way to draw conclusions about what people do with the language. For instance, you're much more likely to type 'Object' in Javascript than you are in Python.

Re: Python overtakes JavaScript as most questioned language on StackOverflow

#136

Post by politician »

I wonder if this is a combination of JavaScript frameworks becoming more sophisticated and offloading concerns from developers and the sheer exhaustion of trying to get a question answered from SO without the host of problems involved in simply asking the question.

It's often easier to ask and answer your own question on the corresponding Github issue tracker and let Google index it, then to run the SO moderation gauntlet.

Re: Python overtakes JavaScript as most questioned language on StackOverflow

#137

Post by ychen306 »

tempguy9999 wrote: post #111
Spivak wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there's lots of beginners to programming but most of the time when I find myself asking basic questions like "how to duplicate array Python" isn't because I couldn't spend 2 minutes writing a function to do it but because there already exists a generally accepted best way to perform this operation that leverages the standard library and there is seemingly no other way to discover what that is. Like for this…

> and there is seemingly no other way to discover what that is Yes there is, it's called reading a goddamn book. > Knowing the right thing to do requires you be informed about the history of Python language design Bullshit, it requires you knowing the language. Perhaps by reading a book. Knowing the history is of little value. > sifting through the massive corpous of documentation and historical knowledge required to…

This seems odd. I've known no one who learns programming by reading books. Reading books help, but most people get proficient by working on projects.

Re: Python overtakes JavaScript as most questioned language on StackOverflow

#138

Post by zmmmmm »

acomjean wrote: post #32

I’ve used python for a while but mainly for small scripts. I’m often googling answers. (Is it myvar.len() or len(myvar) or myvar.__len__.?) do I use conda or pip or... 2.7 or 3.?. Oddly I’ll use books for other languages (Perl/JavaScript). It’s a fine language and easy to get running but it seems harder to memorize things in it vs others (if I was 100% of my time using it, it probably would easier).

For a language that sets out its principles so clearly its amazing the hostile outcomes that have resulted.

For example, unlike every other language there is no "unique" function that operates on streams /iterators. Why is that? Because you can do that by creating a set(...) and Pythonistas think there should be only one and one good way to do something. So now nobody ever knows the answer to this and 100% of people learn it by googling and finding the answer on stack overflow.

It doesn't help that nearly everything is untyped and consequently IDE completion is all but useless.

Re: Python overtakes JavaScript as most questioned language on StackOverflow

#140

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

drexlspivey wrote: post #54
acomjean wrote: post #32

I’ve used python for a while but mainly for small scripts. I’m often googling answers. (Is it myvar.len() or len(myvar) or myvar.__len__.?) do I use conda or pip or... 2.7 or 3.?. Oddly I’ll use books for other languages (Perl/JavaScript). It’s a fine language and easy to get running but it seems harder to memorize things in it vs others (if I was 100% of my time using it, it probably would easier).

It's not actually. You never call dunder methods directly, you use them through the built-in function or operator. So it can be neither myvar.len() nor myvar.__len__

Well, x.__len__() is the same as len(x). You’re just supposed to remember not to use it (makes you wonder why they chose len(x) instead of x.len())
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