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Why We Choose Python

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Re: Why We Choose Python

#41

Post by [deleted] »

dazzawazza wrote: post #7
caioariede wrote: post #2

And one of the best features of Python: The community The Python community allied with the good programming habits (aka PEP 8) really does the difference.

I LOVE PEP8. There it is I said it. I love that I can look at Python code I wrote eight years ago and it looks like I wrote it yesterday (apart from the fact I've got better and working with python). Even better I can look at someone else's code and if they've bothered to follow PEP 8 I am straight in, understanding the code and not their formatting. It removed a cognitive load that in C++ just kills me. It's bloody…

[deleted]

Re: Why We Choose Python

#42

Post by drzaiusapelord »

bitwize wrote: post #29
portmanteaufu wrote: post #15

I made it as far as ".... Python is the language of choice for serious developers" before I bailed. I love Python, but let's not make this a True Scotsman fallacy.

Thing is, Python is becoming rapidly the language of choice for scientists, statisticians, and other knowledge workers who only do a bit of development.

Its really just filling the vacuum Perl is leaving. I imagine if you had the choice to learn Perl or learn Python, you'd probably go with Python. The syntax and code just look so much more manageable.

Re: Why We Choose Python

#43

Post by Aloisius »

I use python because it is functional psuedocode. Before I learned python, my sketches for algorithms on whiteboards looked like python.

Also, the community practices for coding style are so strong in Python that I can open up nearly any piece of code on the internet and have no problems reading it no matter how junior or senior the person was who wrote it. This is a big win for maintainability and one of the main reasons why I prefer Python over Ruby or Perl.

Re: Why We Choose Python

#44

Post by nsmartt »

bitwize wrote: post #29
portmanteaufu wrote: post #15

I made it as far as ".... Python is the language of choice for serious developers" before I bailed. I love Python, but let's not make this a True Scotsman fallacy.

Thing is, Python is becoming rapidly the language of choice for scientists, statisticians, and other knowledge workers who only do a bit of development.

That has no relation to the idea that "serious developers" use Python.

Re: Why We Choose Python

#45

Post by EliRivers »

davidroberts wrote: post #35
EliRivers wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the opposite. For example, I find it extraordinarily frustrating not to be able to know what kind of object something is by looking at the point in code where it is created; something like variable = somefunction(inputParameter) where variable did not exist before leaves me having to look up the documentation of somefunction to know what kind of object it is returning.

Hopefully, whoever defined somefunction did something like this: def somefunction(inputParameter): ''' inputParameter: List of seven positive integers representing a poker hand Returns: A positive integer used to score that hand relative to all other possible hands, better hands receive higher scores. '''

You know they didn't. These are programmers we're talking about :)

Re: Why We Choose Python

#46

Post by [deleted] »

davidroberts wrote: post #35
EliRivers wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the opposite. For example, I find it extraordinarily frustrating not to be able to know what kind of object something is by looking at the point in code where it is created; something like variable = somefunction(inputParameter) where variable did not exist before leaves me having to look up the documentation of somefunction to know what kind of object it is returning.

Hopefully, whoever defined somefunction did something like this: def somefunction(inputParameter): ''' inputParameter: List of seven positive integers representing a poker hand Returns: A positive integer used to score that hand relative to all other possible hands, better hands receive higher scores. '''

[deleted]

Re: Why We Choose Python

#47

Post by lifeisstillgood »

You cannot write an article like this if you cannot first write an article on Python's warts

http://web.archive.org/web/20070202012909/http://www.amk.ca/...

http://www.rittau.org/python/warts

in fact I would love a warts wiki for frameworks, libraries and more. Python or not. Its important to have these debates out loud.

Re: Why We Choose Python

#48

Post by lifeisstillgood »

robomartin wrote: post #13

One business metric that is worth considering is the cost of putting together a Python team vs., say, PHP. Here "cost" doesn't mean salaries as much as it means "cost function" or "difficulty score". Get away from Silicon Valley's reality distortion field and I think Python, today, might still have some issues in this regard. I am not talking about finding one developer. I am talking about finding one, scaling to fiv…

I always used to use Python as a metric of the quality of a developer. PHP on the resume - Meh. Python on the resume - now there is someone who cares enough about unusual languages to try one out, likes it and follows through. A strong developer.

Of course thats a bit harder now, I would look for a functional language on there these days.

Re: Why We Choose Python

#49

Post by PasserBy2 »

bitwize wrote: post #29
portmanteaufu wrote: post #15

I made it as far as ".... Python is the language of choice for serious developers" before I bailed. I love Python, but let's not make this a True Scotsman fallacy.

Thing is, Python is becoming rapidly the language of choice for scientists, statisticians, and other knowledge workers who only do a bit of development.

For writing throw-away code that is. It's more of a scripting language than a development language. Unless you are a 'hawt' start-up in 'cisco'.

Re: Why We Choose Python

#50

Post by PasserBy2 »

nsmartt wrote: post #44
bitwize wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is, Python is becoming rapidly the language of choice for scientists, statisticians, and other knowledge workers who only do a bit of development.

That has no relation to the idea that "serious developers" use Python.

...but it will generate flame on HN.
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