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Not that long ago my initial response to this comment would be to be annoyed about being judged on grammar. However, maybe because I'm a bit more mature, or I'v

Not that long ago my initial response to this comment would be to be annoyed about being judged on grammar. However, maybe because I'm a bit more mature, or I've just been working so much on writing documentation the past couple years, I see your point 100%. It also helps that you've stated so eloquently. I'll be sure to make edits later this weekend, I wrote that article quickly on my lunch break. The point I may didn't expound on enough was when I spoke of reinventing the wheel. What I mean is the reluctance within the Python community to use existing tools, and instead turning to rewrite them in Python. The libcurl reference is a perfect example. Curl provides a wealth of functionality, but some would prefer calling it's use not pythonic. As for interviewing, there's more to a developer than just the programs they write.

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
Re grammar, thank you for an excellent response. People often say that language isn't nailed to the floor with one right way of saying things, but that misses the point. Communication is important, and if a writer doesn't get things right, some of the audience will be lost. I'm intrigued by the emergence of the "I could care less" expression. Here in the UK people look at it, stunned, and are confused as to what the author meant. It's like "The proof is in the pudding," an expression that clearly derives from something that makes sense in a stand-alone context, but which now can only be understood as an idiomatic, atomic phrase, and which doesn't mean what it actually says. But that's language, which is weird. With regards using existing tools, I largely, but not entirely, agree with you. It would be useful if languages had clean containment methods/techniques for wrapping existing tools rather than (re-)implementing facilities, but that's a general discussion. And I agree that there's more to a developer than just the programs they write. That, however, partly makes my point and not yours. Whether they expend effort writing "Pythonically" is, to my mind, a much smaller point than whether they document well, communicate clearly, design effectively, and have a sense of balance. But that's a minor issue. I suspect we are, in truth, more in agreement than not.
regularfry 16y ago
"Not Invented Here" is far from unique to Python. I've seen it first hand in Ruby (where the number of genuinely unique things in the ::Net namespace that deserve to be natively implemented is, let's say, not large), Clojure (where people want "Capistrano, but in Clojure" or "Chef, but in Clojure") and Python ("Oh woe is me, where is Python's Rake?"). I very much doubt any language community is without these sorts of discussions. It drives me up the wall. So much wasted effort. And don't get me started on packaging systems...

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

Re grammar, thank you for an excellent response. People often say that language isn't nailed to the floor with one right way of saying things, but that misses the point. Communication is important, and if a writer doesn't get things right, some of the audience will be lost. I'm intrigued by the emergence of the "I could care less" expression. Here in the UK people look at it, stunned, and are confused as to what the author meant. It's like "The proof is in the pudding," an expression that clearly derives from something that makes sense in a stand-alone context, but which now can only be understood as an idiomatic, atomic phrase, and which doesn't mean what it actually says. But that's language, which is weird. With regards using existing tools, I largely, but not entirely, agree with you. It would be useful if languages had clean containment methods/techniques for wrapping existing tools rather than (re-)implementing facilities, but that's a general discussion. And I agree that there's more to a developer than just the programs they write. That, however, partly makes my point and not yours. Whether they expend effort writing "Pythonically" is, to my mind, a much smaller point than whether they document well, communicate clearly, design effectively, and have a sense of balance. But that's a minor issue. I suspect we are, in truth, more in agreement than not.

regularfry 16y ago

"Not Invented Here" is far from unique to Python. I've seen it first hand in Ruby (where the number of genuinely unique things in the ::Net namespace that deserve to be natively implemented is, let's say, not large), Clojure (where people want "Capistrano, but in Clojure" or "Chef, but in Clojure") and Python ("Oh woe is me, where is Python's Rake?"). I very much doubt any language community is without these sorts of discussions. It drives me up the wall. So much wasted effort. And don't get me started on packaging systems...