5 ms·

Something that takes 10 years to rewrite (even gradually) has no business being written in Python. Yikes!

by xedrac 7y ago

TylerE 7y ago
What would you write it in? At the time the re-write started, Django hadn't yet seen a public release, Rails barely existed (and had zero traction, and Ruby-the-runtime was horrible), dotnet was barely a thing, Clojure and Go didn't exist yet, dotnet barely existed. 2005 was a weird time. Realistically the only options at the time were Python, PHP (4, not 5), or Perl. I didn't come in until much later, but I don't really think there was a better option at the time.
- cs02rm0 7y ago
  Java?
  - y4mi 7y ago
    It wouldve been Java 5. do you actually know what that would mean?
- jonnycomputer 7y ago
  I'm guessing this is because some people only think of python as being a prototyping language, for performance reasons.
untog 7y ago
Why not? I would argue that if you already have a lot of in-house knowledge with Java then you might as well stick with it (and just not make whatever mistakes you made last time around) but Python seems like a reasonable alternative to me.
- TylerE 7y ago
  At the time there was a strong internal directive that it not only not be Java, but not anything that even looked a bit like Java if you squinted at it (e.g. dotnet) - plus we've always been an "anything but Windows" shop anyway
  - sk5t 7y ago
    Sounds like a decision born of vanity and pedantry. "These VMs are too good, and the type systems too useful, to hell with them!"
    - fulafel 7y ago
      There's a lot of culture that comes with a language. 10 years ago, Java and C# were associated with enterprisey complexity and interchangeable programmers working under architecture astronauts, Python was used by the cool kids. Keeping to simplicity is hard when the available libraries and people you recruit were used to https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpriseEdition https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpris...
- mcguire 7y ago
  How stable has Python (and its ecosystem) been over that time?

Something that takes 10 years to rewrite (even gradually) has no business being written in Python. Yikes!

by xedrac 7y ago

Something that takes 10 years to rewrite (even gradually) has no business being written in Python. Yikes!

What would you write it in? At the time the re-write started, Django hadn't yet seen a public release, Rails barely existed (and had zero traction, and Ruby-the-runtime was horrible), dotnet was barely a thing, Clojure and Go didn't exist yet, dotnet barely existed. 2005 was a weird time. Realistically the only options at the time were Python, PHP (4, not 5), or Perl. I didn't come in until much later, but I don't really think there was a better option at the time.

cs02rm0 7y ago
Java?
- y4mi 7y ago
  It wouldve been Java 5. do you actually know what that would mean?
jonnycomputer 7y ago
I'm guessing this is because some people only think of python as being a prototyping language, for performance reasons.

untog 7y ago

Why not? I would argue that if you already have a lot of in-house knowledge with Java then you might as well stick with it (and just not make whatever mistakes you made last time around) but Python seems like a reasonable alternative to me.

TylerE 7y ago
At the time there was a strong internal directive that it not only not be Java, but not anything that even looked a bit like Java if you squinted at it (e.g. dotnet) - plus we've always been an "anything but Windows" shop anyway
- sk5t 7y ago
  Sounds like a decision born of vanity and pedantry. "These VMs are too good, and the type systems too useful, to hell with them!"
  - fulafel 7y ago
    There's a lot of culture that comes with a language. 10 years ago, Java and C# were associated with enterprisey complexity and interchangeable programmers working under architecture astronauts, Python was used by the cool kids. Keeping to simplicity is hard when the available libraries and people you recruit were used to https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpriseEdition https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpris...
mcguire 7y ago
How stable has Python (and its ecosystem) been over that time?