Reasons Python Sucks

Post by blattimwind » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 6:37 PM UTC

sam0x17 wrote: post #220

toyg wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note how almost all languages you take as shiny examples of virtue post-date Python: they all learnt from it so much , particularly on things like the stdlib. Python’s stdlib was the gold standard for a long, long time (the “batteries included” slogan was effective for a reason - they really were!). This was not by accident - Guido and others have always had the utmost care for good developer experience out of the bo…

This begs the question though why can't the python ecosystem simply evolve? Is that too much to ask? You say these languages have learned so much from Python. If there is so much to learn in terms of do's and dont's, why doesn't Python simply follow this advice?

Post by brudgers » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 6:40 PM UTC

civility wrote: post #188

brudgers wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything in Python may be an object in some technical sense. Semantically, everything isn't. The utility of "everything is an object" is as a promise that lets programmers write: 3.fizzbuzz # returns "fizz" 5.fizzbuzz # returns "buzz" 7.fizzbuzz # returns 7 15.fizzbuzz # returns "fizzbuzz" as is the case with Ruby or Smalltalk. I think that the author's complaints center around Python behaving like C sometimes and…

Are you after monkey patching, where you can add new methods outside of the class definition? That's not really a standard feature of all object orient languages - Java doesn't do that, for instance. Python integers are definitely objects: (3).real # returns 3 (3).imag # returns 0 Python's lexer/parser made different choices than Ruby's, so the parens are needed here.

  (3).fizzbuzz => "fizz"

  class Fixnum
    def fizzbuzz()
      if self % 15 == 0
        "fizzbuzz"
      end
      if self % 3 == 0
        "fizz"
      end
      if self % 5 == 0
        "buzz"
      end
      return self
    end
  end

Post by blattimwind » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 6:41 PM UTC

civility wrote: post #163

pkolaczk wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7 Isn't Python actually pass-by-value / pass-pointer-to-object-by-value like Java is? Many confuse pass-pointer-to-object-by-value with pass-by-reference, but they are different things. Pass-by-reference allows to write a procedure that swaps two external values.

You're right that you can't perform swaps with a Python function, but it's never pass-by-value like Java primitive types. It feels like pass-by-value because int, long, float, complex, and string are basically immutable.

Post by dkarl » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 6:43 PM UTC

fhood wrote: post #100

notacoward wrote: post #70

Most of the points in this article fall on a continuum between irrelevant to dead wrong. 1 (versions) and 2 (installation) have to do with the ecosystem, not the language. Unsigned packages are a real problem, but hating on community-maintained software is just weird. Most software in your local Linux distro's repository is maintained by a "community" that might just be one person working in their spare time. 3 (synt…

It's funny how far off the author was, because there are genuine things to complain about with python, though they may not be exclusive to python. I regularly wish python required some sort type indication for function parameters, because dealing with libraries that take complex objects as function parameters can be an absolute nightmare. I wish python had some equivalent to the switch statement that didn't involve w…

Post by the_gastropod » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 6:43 PM UTC

sli wrote: post #129

> And Python? It uses spaces. If you need to define a scope for complex code, then you indent the next few lines. The scope ends when the indent ends. Curiously, I never see the indent scope complaint about, say, Haskell. It's always just Python. I've wondered for a long time why that is. There's the obvious one, that Python is just far more popular, but I'd expect experienced people to have used or at least seen ano…