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That's nowhere near 90% of Python. It's strange because everyone thinks Python is an easy language to learn, but that's not True at all. It's easy to pick up an

That's nowhere near 90% of Python. It's strange because everyone thinks Python is an easy language to learn, but that's not True at all. It's easy to pick up and be productive with it in a very short time, yes, but the interpreter has so much going on you can't learn everything in years. If you happen to learn everything about protocols, the interpreter gotchas, there is the standard library which is also huge, and if you got everything in it, there is the ecosystem, which is so large nobody can know about every package. And I did not talked about the whole new world of Python3, asyncio and the whole old world of Twisted.

jacquesm 9y ago
> If you happen to learn everything about protocols, the interpreter gotchas, there is the standard library which is also huge, and if you got everything in it, there is the ecosystem, which is so large nobody can know about every package. I don't think the library and packages are part of the language though. Just like there is a 'C' without a standard library there is Python 'the language'. As for the 90%, 90% of the code you write is boring and simple. The one thing I really missed in the slides was list comprehensions, presumably they are in the '10%', but I use them all the time.
- mharrison 9y ago
  Yeah, these slides were for a long conference talk that introduced the basic syntax of Python to developers who weren't familiar with Python. (List) comprehensions are super cool, as are generators, decorators, etc, but there just wasn't enough time to cover that. Plus, as you say most code is boring, and you can get by with the material in this deck.
Terr_ 9y ago
> That's nowhere near 90% of Python. [...] the interpreter has so much going on you can't learn everything in years. [...] the ecosystem, which is so large nobody can know about every package. I'm pretty sure that this "90% of Python" is in the context of the stuff an already-experienced developer needs to absorb to honestly put "Python" under "Languages" in a resume... ... Not the amount of knowledge you need to say "I know everything there is to know about Python, it's implementation details, and its entire associated ecosystem of third-party applications." > but that's not True at all Can't tell if intentional, or habit :P

jacquesm 9y ago

> If you happen to learn everything about protocols, the interpreter gotchas, there is the standard library which is also huge, and if you got everything in it, there is the ecosystem, which is so large nobody can know about every package. I don't think the library and packages are part of the language though. Just like there is a 'C' without a standard library there is Python 'the language'. As for the 90%, 90% of the code you write is boring and simple. The one thing I really missed in the slides was list comprehensions, presumably they are in the '10%', but I use them all the time.

mharrison 9y ago
Yeah, these slides were for a long conference talk that introduced the basic syntax of Python to developers who weren't familiar with Python. (List) comprehensions are super cool, as are generators, decorators, etc, but there just wasn't enough time to cover that. Plus, as you say most code is boring, and you can get by with the material in this deck.

Terr_ 9y ago

> That's nowhere near 90% of Python. [...] the interpreter has so much going on you can't learn everything in years. [...] the ecosystem, which is so large nobody can know about every package. I'm pretty sure that this "90% of Python" is in the context of the stuff an already-experienced developer needs to absorb to honestly put "Python" under "Languages" in a resume... ... Not the amount of knowledge you need to say "I know everything there is to know about Python, it's implementation details, and its entire associated ecosystem of third-party applications." > but that's not True at all Can't tell if intentional, or habit :P