Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Python keeps growing, explained

github.blog

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 459 posts

Re: Why Python keeps growing, explained

#2

Post by flohofwoe »

I used Python for the last 10 years or so for all sorts of cross-platform command line scripting stuff, but watching Python3's progress I have the impression that this simple use case is no longer their main focus (I sometimes wonder if there's any focus or vision at all tbh). After having tinkered with Deno for the last 2 weeks or so I must say that this is indeed the 'better Python' (for me at least, and not because of Typescript - the language is more or less just an implementation detail for writing command line utilities - but because of Deno's approach to package management).

Re: Why Python keeps growing, explained

#3

Post by t43562 »

I learned Perl first and found it incredibly useful just because of regexps but Perl programs got messy as they got larger. Python regexps are just that bit less convenient and that trivial amount matters but in python I feel that once you get to writing functions and perhaps even classes it accelerates far ahead of Perl and you can write understandable, maintainable large programs in Python.

You're not forced to dip into the OO side of things though and I've heard people suggest to me that Python is a language where no rules apply and no structure exists. They feel that they can dive in without the care they would have to take in Java or C++. I think they are very wrong but you can certainly write terrible code if you want and perhaps this "all-things-to-all-people" aspect of it is part of the success.

Re: Why Python keeps growing, explained

#4

Post by gopisuvanam »

flohofwoe wrote: post #2

I used Python for the last 10 years or so for all sorts of cross-platform command line scripting stuff, but watching Python3's progress I have the impression that this simple use case is no longer their main focus (I sometimes wonder if there's any focus or vision at all tbh). After having tinkered with Deno for the last 2 weeks or so I must say that this is indeed the 'better Python' (for me at least, and not becaus…

Python has been my favorite for products and scripting. I've been advocating for Python's dominance when the world was after Java. But now I'm more inclined towards JavaScript. And agree with you Deno is taking the right approach (as opposed to nodejs).

Having JavaScript in the front end and backed both can reduce resource requirements as well.

Re: Why Python keeps growing, explained

#5

Post by klysm »

gopisuvanam wrote: post #4
flohofwoe wrote: post #2

I used Python for the last 10 years or so for all sorts of cross-platform command line scripting stuff, but watching Python3's progress I have the impression that this simple use case is no longer their main focus (I sometimes wonder if there's any focus or vision at all tbh). After having tinkered with Deno for the last 2 weeks or so I must say that this is indeed the 'better Python' (for me at least, and not becaus…

Python has been my favorite for products and scripting. I've been advocating for Python's dominance when the world was after Java. But now I'm more inclined towards JavaScript. And agree with you Deno is taking the right approach (as opposed to nodejs). Having JavaScript in the front end and backed both can reduce resource requirements as well.

By resource requirements surely you don’t mean compute resources right?

Re: Why Python keeps growing, explained

#6

Post by pharmakom »

Comparing Python to Java 8 and saying it’s more readable isn’t showing much.

And it’s not very portable the second dependencies with native code (which is common since pure Python is too inefficient for many tasks) are used.

I think Python is popular for two reasons:

- it’s believed to be beginner friendly compared to other languages. I’m not really sure why - maybe the whitespace?

- it has an enormous set of libraries available to use

In other words, Python has momentum. The language itself isn’t great, but that is a secondary concern to most, if they are even aware of this at all!

Re: Why Python keeps growing, explained

#7

Post by qsort »

Eh, they're just a lot of ways to say "path dependence". Scripting languages are basically the same exact technology with respect to each other. In the alternate universe where numpy and scipy are, let's say, numruby and sciruby, wouldn't we be here asking why Ruby keeps growing?

That's not a sales pitch for python, it's a sales pitch for the concept of a scripting language; it's like saying "you should really buy a Ford, it comes with four wheels".

Re: Why Python keeps growing, explained

#8

Post by gorgoiler »

The comparison with Java is always a funny one. Consider this:

  import sys

  def main(
    args: list[str],
  ) -> int:
    sys.stdout.write(“hi\n”)
    return 0

  sys.exit(main())
Apart from the call to write instead of print everything else there is a standard Python pattern for writing testable, type-safe arg-parsing code!

It’s just that you don’t have to write testable, type-safe code if you don’t want to.

Re: Why Python keeps growing, explained

#9

Post by Akronymus »

pharmakom wrote: post #6

Comparing Python to Java 8 and saying it’s more readable isn’t showing much. And it’s not very portable the second dependencies with native code (which is common since pure Python is too inefficient for many tasks) are used. I think Python is popular for two reasons: - it’s believed to be beginner friendly compared to other languages. I’m not really sure why - maybe the whitespace? - it has an enormous set of librari…

> - it’s believed to be beginner friendly compared to other languages. I’m not really sure why - maybe the whitespace?

I am leaning more towards it looking like pseudocode

> - it has an enormous set of libraries available to use

I believe that to be the actual reason. I've long held that python is a kinda bad language, but with FANTASTIC libraries

Post reply on HN