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Thank You, Guido

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Re: Thank You, Guido

#381
post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python and Ruby although in the same category have still different mindset. It is understandable the way you think fits Ruby more. I tried to learn ruby and was put off by all the magic, last value calculated is magically returned, the useful but cryptic method calls. It is shorter and more implicit, I like the explicit approach more. to give you my perspective on the points you made: - self: more explicit, I would p…

>spaces vs. braces: I don't hate braces, but spaces makes it more readable Really?? This is my least favorite thing about Python. D: It can't possibly be more readable when you're talking about large code blocks. It just happens that we're never supposed to be talking about large code blocks in Python. "If you want to write a lot of code, you use another language," they say -- probably one with braces, which syntax h…

Nope. The indentation bothered me for an hour one afternoon in the spring of 2001, then it dawned on me what a master stroke it was. Code with ~25% less redundant bullshit.

Less is definitely more here.

Re: Thank You, Guido

#382
post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you see performance factors beyond 1000 on some algorithms between python/ruby and C/C++ and you see python being deployed everywhere, no wonder where all the earth's energy is going. At least these are promoted by silicon vendors. Edit: I cannot blame too much though, its generating comfortable revenue for me as a consultant. Still, having to deploy nginx/haproxy to load balance python servers for only 200 requ…

I do some consulting as well. Same thing, total python on back-end servers. All young programmers, some calling themselves pythonistas. Many actively support green movement to the point of wearing "green" labeled clothes. I loved their reaction when I showed them a table outlining energy consumption of python vs C (75 times difference).

Most services are IO bound, not CPU bound. For the later, there is Cython and C, as you mention.

Re: Thank You, Guido

#383
post #22

I hated C++ and Matlab as an undergraduate. Hell, I hated programming as a whole - and effectively swear never to write a line of code once I was done with my BSc in Physics. Then, at work, I was introduced to Python. It was so...obvious, for lack of a better world. It was like a language I always knew that never spoke before. I'm now a software engineer, write Python almost all day, and looking back to the 18-year o…

Have you tried Ruby? It's the most "what you describe" language I've used. I don't use it because Python's more popular and I'm a slave to fashion and critical mass, but it's so much more easy and expressive than even Python's syntax. for i in 0..5 I can't believe Python didn't adopt that syntax, which comes from Bash ... I surmise it didn't because Python is actually something of the philosophical opposite of Ruby.…

What do you do when you need to change the step? Unique syntax can fall down where a generic function call would handle it.

Re: Thank You, Guido

#384

I'm travelling with poor cellular connection and it took me 10 minutes to load this page, while I could load and read content on HN perfectly fine. The text content loaded LAST. That website is terrible.

Agreed, I'm at a desktop with 100mb connection and I had to reload it twice and it still took about 1 minute to show itself.

Re: Thank You, Guido

#385

I first learned Python back in 1996, when there was just one Python forum where Guido answered any and all questions. He was gracious and polite enough not to call me a dumbass for not realizing that tabs were a requirement, not an option. That was also when I became a tab-convert. Thank you Guido for this incredible tool that has helped so many others actualize their solution aspirations.

You may have meant this, but in case a newbie reads: Tabs are not a requirement, pep8 recommends 4 spaces per indent level.

Re: Thank You, Guido

#386

It's been some time since I programmed in Python and it left a good impression with some caveats. I remember being bothered by the lack of a strong type checker. I see that now there is MyPy. Good to know. The other problem is the lack of a super fast runtime. A Python to C compiler would be great. I remember using Cython but didn't like it that much, even though it was much faster then normal Python;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuitka

Re: Thank You, Guido

#387
post #16

Did you notice this: "He has already put into motion the conversion of the Dropbox server code from Python 2 to Python 3." Even the company that hired Guido is still heavily dependent on Python 2, and it doesn't surprise me at all; my own employer still has a lot of it in internal tools.

Python 2 to Python 3 breakage is the worst thing that ever happened to Python. Even simple things like retaining the print statement (which could certainly coexist peacefully with the print() function) would have made things easier. It's not too late though. We could add better backward compatibility into Python 3.

Use logging for non-trivial apps.

Re: Thank You, Guido

#388
post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is about the thinking process of the person, I assume you are >35, you grew up at a time that people were think about the performance more than the readability, that was the bottleneck back then. Now that you have bigger systems and more complex requirements and cheap high performance computing, the balance is tipped. And because python is (almost) on the opposite side of the spectrum for your thinking pro…

> For me personally it is Python, the delay between solving a problem and having it translated to python in my head is slim. You probably feel the same way about your own favourite programming language. I feel that with Ruby, which I do a lot nowadays and love WIth regards to Python, it is the things like having to write 'self' on each class method, having spaces as part of the language syntax, inconsistent Object or…

> having to write 'self' on each class method

Um, "end"?

:)

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