The State of Python in 2021

Python deployment is an absolute nightmare. And don’t you dare say “just use conda”.

Python the language isn’t particularly great. The built-in libraries are a mixed bag. (Filesys is awful). But everyone is forced to use Python because numpy is super powerful and all the ML frameworks are in Python.

The fact that GIL is still an issue in 2021 is a god damn travesty. As is the overall awful performance of Python.

The language definitely got something right. But I can’t decide how much of its success is good ideas vs pure inertia.

With regards to installing via the windows store, I've been told by others in various programmer communities that this isn't the best idea. It doesn't add things to the PATH properly and is a pain to sort out.

I either install it from the python website or using scoop.

It does forget to mention very important topics:

- type hints are finally useful, thanks to better mypy default and support, and allowing built-in, protocols and shortcuts into the syntax

- 3.10 ships with pattern matching and, I must insist, absolutely better error messages (being waiting for that for a while)

- black is the status quo formatting tool in the community

- pydantic base libs are getting a lot of traction (the article does mention typer, but not fast api)

- dephell allow you to convert between all those mess of various build systems so you can easily start with pip and move to poetry

- a new dev is now PAID by the PSF to work on python

- __pypackages__ is being actively experimented with, with initiatives like the pdm, the py launcher or pyflow (which also aims to take pyenv job, but saving you the compilation)

- plenty of speed work being done by MS, but also 2 other projects

- pyproject.toml is has now enough PEP to be better than setup.cfg , including one for a lock file

- vscode is now the most popular python ide, their language server pylance rocks and does feature auto imports now

- zipapps with shiv and compiled apps with nuitka changed the game of python deployment

- brett canon decided to use doit as a build tool publicly for new projects so it's getting traction. Ok, I kinda oversold it to him, but it's a good tool, it's worth checking out.

- asyncio is not a curiosity anymore, and the ecosystem is pretty mature, with uvloop, aiohttp, httpx, trio, etc. And the work for a integrated nurseries into the stdlib is on the way

- concurrency in Python has seen a boost because of the stdlib ShareMemory module, and sub interpretter are now being tested by popular projects

- python 2.7 has been dead for 1 year and it's business as uasual

- python 3.6 is the "old python" now. Funny, considering we used to thing f-string were the new toy

- rust is becomming python best friend, with more and more extensions being written in rust, and even one python implementation

- pyiodine makes it trivial to test real python code in a webpage. For web dev it's not usable, but for teaching it's been awesome:. Type to use sqlite in there, it's works magically, despite never touching the server : https://notebook.basthon.fr/

- htmx (the js lib) is getting used by pythonista that don't like js much

- wagtail, the cms, has become a thing of beauty

I probably forget a lot of things.

I do expect that the state of dependancy management is going to change in the next few years because:

- MS has entered the game

- PEP are being worked on a lot on packaging lately

- shiv, briefcase and nuitka are getting traction

- poetry and dephell are very qualitative tools

- __pypackages__ is on the way (try it with pdm)

- pyflow show a very interesting approach to installing python

- python 2 is dead for good

- wheels are now ubiquitous