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I think that Python "fixes" reliance on language features. Sure, Python has a lot of neat features compared to say C# or Java, but as a dynamic language it rea
by j_baker 16y ago
I think that Python "fixes" reliance on language features. Sure, Python has a lot of neat features compared to say C# or Java, but as a dynamic language it really isn't anything that great.
But Python is probably the best example in recent history of a language that made it big not because it was anything radically new or innovative, but because it has a great standard library and a solid, mature implementation.
- samps 16y agoAgreed. In many ways, Python is the most "boring" of the modern dynamic languages, in the sense that it trades exciting features and hip syntax for predictability and elegance. So it gets a lot of the productivity, conciseness, and power of other dynamic languages without nearly as much cognitive dissonance for people familiar with C or Java.
- etal 16y agoI was going to say that Python fixes in programming languages whatever Markdown fixes in other plain-text markup syntaxes. But thinking about it, you're right -- it fixes the tendency of other languages to invent special syntax to represent standard, frequently used concepts. Python follows the conventions you might use when sketching out an idea on a napkin, and takes each convention to its logical, parser-friendly conclusion. There are few language features that would be hard to succinctly express in a line of pseudocode. ("If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.") Result: straightforward, algorithmic code looks like pseudocode, and any code that uses special language features really pops out -- if you see an at-sign or double-underscores, you know something Python-specific is happening.