51–60 of 183 posts
Here is another one, list and expression comprehensions shared with ML languages (not that AI one), apparently many aren't aware of them. The itertools package.
never used it but it seems worth a try
TFA's use-case for for/else does not convince me: for server in servers: if server.check_availability(): primary_server = server break else: primary_server = backup_server deploy_application(primary_server) As it is shorter to do this: primary_server = backup_server for server in servers: if server.check_availability(): primary_server = server break deploy_application(primary_server)
This kind of search can be done a variety of different ways, and is worth abstracting, e.g.: def first(candidates, predicate, default): try: return next(c for c in candidates if predicate(c)) except StopIteration: return default deploy_application(first(servers, Server.check_availability, backup_server))
Python has evolved into quite a complex language considering the amount of features that come built-in. The documentation, while complete, does not facilitate discovery of many of those features.
For me, the biggest benefit to python is that it feels like executable pseudocode. The language gets out of the way of your domain level instructions. This is probably why most non-programmers have the easiest time with python. The more fancy stuff you add to it, the less attractive it becomes. Sure, most of these things have some sort of use, but I reckon most people do not get deep enough into python to understand…
Working in the ML field, I can't hate Python. But the type system (pre-3.12, of course) cost me a lot of nerves. Hoping for a better post-3.12 experience once all libraries are usable in 3.12+. After that experience, I’ve come to truly appreciate TypeScript’s type system. Never thought I’d say that.
Hey kiddo… did you ever try something nastier? I’ve got something that will blow your mind and you’ll keep coming back You don’t know but you are addicted to types Come to the light - Haskell!
Or embrace logic + functional programming: Curry. https://curry-language.org/
For me, the biggest benefit to python is that it feels like executable pseudocode. The language gets out of the way of your domain level instructions. This is probably why most non-programmers have the easiest time with python. The more fancy stuff you add to it, the less attractive it becomes. Sure, most of these things have some sort of use, but I reckon most people do not get deep enough into python to understand…
I disagree. Adding "fancy stuff" by definition does not remove what made it attractive to you in the first place. You even acknowledge this in your second sentence. Something you don't know of is not capable to influence your opinion in any way. And when you know of it -- and dislike it -- just keep doing it the way you did before knowing it.
That breaks down as soon as you need to work with anyone else's code that uses the "fancy stuff".
I think this list should also include descriptors[0]: it's another metaprogramming feature that allows running code when accessing or setting class attributes similar to @property but more powerful. (edit: nvm, I saw that they are covered in the proxy properties section!)
I think the type system is quite good actually, even if you end up having to sidestep it when doing this kind of meta-programming. The errors I do get are generally the library's fault (old versions of SQLAlchemy make it impossible to assign types anywhere...) and there's a few gotchas (like mutable collections being invariant, so if you take a list as an argument you may have to type it as `Sequence[]` or you'll get type errors) but it's functional and makes the language usable for me.
I stopped using Ruby because upstream would not commit on type checking (yes I know you have a few choices if you want typing, but they're a bit too much overhead for what I usually use Ruby for, which is writing scripts), and I'm glad Python is committing here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same experience here, Python’s typing experience is awful compared to TypeScript, even post-3.12. Mypy’s type inference is so dumb you have to write arguments like `i: int = 0`; `TypedDict`s seems promisable at first and then end up as a nightmare where you have to `cast` everything. I miss TypeScript’s `unknown` as well.
Mypy was designed to enable gradual adoption. There is definitely Python code out there with `def f(i=0)` where `i` could be any numeric type including floats, complex, numpy etc.. This is called duck typing. It's wrong for a type checker to assume `i: int` in such a case. Pyright probably works if you use it for a new project from the start or invest a lot of time "fixing" an existing project. But it's a totally dif…
I tried Pyright but as you say on an existing project you need a looot of time to "fix" it.
Python has evolved into quite a complex language considering the amount of features that come built-in. The documentation, while complete, does not facilitate discovery of many of those features.
It's more complex that decade ago, but still a relatively simple language. I can understand the article without much effort, while I scratch my head really hard when read about advance feature of Typescript or Scala.
If only. I suspect very few Python programmers can even fully explain what `a + b` does.
If `a` and `b` are instances of classes, many would say it's equivalent to `a.__add__(b)` or `type(a).__add__(a, b)`, but in fact it's much more complex.