The biggest issues with Python are speed and the lack of typechecking. Interesting that they took this bit of wisdom away from programming in PHP . I say this because I've never heard anyone consider a lack of type-checking as an issue when considering Python. It's a feature. You either need type-checking or you don't. I suspect that the Quorum engineers didn't need type-checking, so I don't understand why the felt t…
> Spare yourself this yammering rant. They chose Python because that's what everyone else at the company was cool with. End of story. I don't think it's a bad idea to evaluate the alternatives, even if you are very comfortable with a specific language. Granted we were pretty cool with Python and that is definitely a major factor in the decision, but it can't be the only one. For example, we were all very comfortable…
I just don't understand why type-checking and speed were factors in choosing the language you were after. If they were, then why even bother looking at Python at all? It isn't a fast language and doesn't have type-checking.
The rest of the article is spent telling me why these features aren't important. Both C# and Java have type-checking (though C# perhaps is a little more loose) and are pretty fast. Yet the article claims that Python is fast enough and that type-checking isn't a requirement because you're more concerned with value assertions (and unit-tests are good enough to validate them).
So essentially the article sets up false premises and knocks them down one by one. Type-checking wasn't actually a requirement. Neither was speed. The only reason we are left with for why Quora chose Python was because that's what most people were familiar with.
I'm not saying it's a bad choice or that your conclusions were incorrect. I just don't think it was a good article.