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Python is not a great programming language

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1–10 of 156 posts

Re: Python is not a great programming language

#2
I think I agree.

Here are a couple of more, from someone who has worked for years in a number of languages:

- few limitations means you can easily make a serious mess, which means you are more dependent on good programmers to avoid the mess.

- lack of typing information isn't "free solo" hard but it certainly makes life a lot less pleasant.

Re: Python is not a great programming language

#3
I /feel/ like this gist is largely on the money, and also uninteresting at the same time. All languages suck, and often suck in different ways for different users. We just have to pick the one that is working best at the time, and that we're best at working with.

I will say that I do like the act of writing a pro and con list for a language or tool though(which is why I read the linked doc), and I often push co-workers to do so when they're suggesting things. Sometimes it shakes a bad choice out just with the simple act of jotting down a 5-point list.

Unless, of course, there actually is an ideal language out there. In which case I retract my point ;)

Re: Python is not a great programming language

#4

I think I agree. Here are a couple of more, from someone who has worked for years in a number of languages: - few limitations means you can easily make a serious mess, which means you are more dependent on good programmers to avoid the mess. - lack of typing information isn't "free solo" hard but it certainly makes life a lot less pleasant.

> lack of typing information isn't "free solo" hard but it certainly makes life a lot less pleasant.

One of the projects I work on has switched to full type hinting along with heavy mypy¹ usage, and it has become an absolute pleasure to work with. Along with hypothesis², I can't recommend mypy enough. It must be said that retrofitting either to an existing project is a lot of work though.

1. http://www.mypy-lang.org/ 2. https://github.com/HypothesisWorks/hypothesis

Re: Python is not a great programming language

#6
This list is so deliciously sophomoric. The best one is, and I quote: """To many other weirdo bits of magic syntax, like [list comprehensions]""" Obviously without actually proposing how comprehensions could be made better one has to hope the author would say he likes the equivalent Haskell better, but there is a strong doubt that is not the case.

Re: Python is not a great programming language

#7
post #5

I love Rob Pikes idea that is dumb to have scope determined by invisible characters

I don’t totally mind it. Poor PEP8 implementations can drive me nuts and so can the type of indentation allowed. But otherwise I can get over it.

And then there’s Bython... https://github.com/mathialo/bython

Re: Python is not a great programming language

#9
Django is ok if you have a web site with content and forms that map nicely onto SQL tables. Any 1998 website, basically, with not too much of a load. Any other setup, and it gets messy.

> Needing to put dict property names `{'in': 'quotes'}.

Now that's a part I like.

Re: Python is not a great programming language

#10
post #6

This list is so deliciously sophomoric. The best one is, and I quote: """To many other weirdo bits of magic syntax, like [list comprehensions]""" Obviously without actually proposing how comprehensions could be made better one has to hope the author would say he likes the equivalent Haskell better, but there is a strong doubt that is not the case.

Complaining about having to cast generators to list... seems like the kind of dev that has their code randomly run out of memory until a senior dev comes and fixes it.
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