4 ms·
I pretty much agree with everything in the article - except for the bit where he tries to quantify why python is better from a developer efficiency perspective
by freetime2 9y ago
I pretty much agree with everything in the article - except for the bit where he tries to quantify why python is better from a developer efficiency perspective than other languages.
The main example he cites is a study that compares the amount of time writing string processing routines in different languages - which is quite a bit different from the work I do every day. I develop web apps which means I generally work in very large code bases, and spend most of my time modifying existing code rather than writing fresh code from scratch. I have found that statically typed languages (java + typescript) and the fantastic IDE support that comes along with them make it really easy to navigate around the code and refactor things. Also - the compiler tends to catch and prevent a whole class of bugs that you might otherwise only catch at runtime in a dynamically typed language.
Of course there are other situations where I prefer to use Ruby as my scripting language of choice - it all comes down to using the right tool for the job at hand. Unfortunately I don't think the author gives enough consideration to the trade-offs between static vs. dynamically typed languages, and I think he would have been better just leaving that section out as it isn't really necessary to prove his point that CPU efficiency isn't important in a lot of applications.
Ultimately though I completely agree with his main point: "Optimize for your most expensive resource. That’s YOU, not the computer."