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So happy to see that Python‘s popularity is still rising, and there seem to be no slow down of the momentum. I got in touch with Python in the 90s but back the

So happy to see that Python‘s popularity is still rising, and there seem to be no slow down of the momentum. I got in touch with Python in the 90s but back then it did not convince me. Later in the 90s Perl was much more attraktive (because of Regexes and later because of CPAN). In the early 2000s Python was a better alternative to Perl given all the basic data structures (Perl‘s nested lists were using pointers; how unintuitive for a high level language), Perl‘s module system wasn‘t intuitive amd beautiful either. Finally I could not write large systems in Perl because I of many reasons. So I tried Python, and it immediately replaced Perl for me. Later Ruby seemed very attractive (for someone who was heavily influenced by Scheme and SICP). But Python seemed to have more momentum. So I played around with Ruby, but always stayed with Python for serious tasks. Now, twenty years later I know there are many other programming languages who are more beautiful in my eyes (functional, for instance Elixir), but I absolutely love working with Python: its elegance, its ecosystem, community, resources. I can tackle all sorts of problems with it. And it seems it will be around in the next twenty years.

TrackerFF 7y ago
My journey was C -> C++ -> Java -> C# -> Python, and I have to say that Python is probably my favorite language. Mostly because of how much more effortless and efficient development feels. Yes, there are even more efficient languages out there, that can do much more with less lines of code, but I feel that Python is just verbose and...well, pseudocode-ish that pretty much anyone with a certain level of coding can read it, and get working. I've noticed that schools have started using Python more and more for entry-level programming classes, so I guess that means more time spent on problem solving, and less time fighting the language. When I was student, the majority of CS classes I took were in plain C. I remember Data Structures and Algorithms being quite a hurdle, simply because much of the time went to tacking C.
kragen 7y ago
Python nested lists use pointers too; this is normal for high-level languages, as I explore in some depth in http://canonical.org/~kragen/memory-models/ http://canonical.org/~kragen/memory-models/. Look: >>> x = [[3, 4], 5] >>> y = [6, x[0]] >>> y[1][1] = 7 >>> x [[3, 7], 5] Octave and Tcl are the exceptions here, and of course in Racket (and maybe in Clojure?) the pointer semantics aren't visible as they are above, but do affect performance. I like Python a lot (I edited the Weekly Python-URL for a while) but it took me longer to switch to it --- most of 2000 and 2001, really. I still occasionally reach for perl for quick command-line things.

TrackerFF 7y ago

My journey was C -> C++ -> Java -> C# -> Python, and I have to say that Python is probably my favorite language. Mostly because of how much more effortless and efficient development feels. Yes, there are even more efficient languages out there, that can do much more with less lines of code, but I feel that Python is just verbose and...well, pseudocode-ish that pretty much anyone with a certain level of coding can read it, and get working. I've noticed that schools have started using Python more and more for entry-level programming classes, so I guess that means more time spent on problem solving, and less time fighting the language. When I was student, the majority of CS classes I took were in plain C. I remember Data Structures and Algorithms being quite a hurdle, simply because much of the time went to tacking C.

kragen 7y ago

Python nested lists use pointers too; this is normal for high-level languages, as I explore in some depth in http://canonical.org/~kragen/memory-models/ http://canonical.org/~kragen/memory-models/. Look: >>> x = [[3, 4], 5] >>> y = [6, x[0]] >>> y[1][1] = 7 >>> x [[3, 7], 5] Octave and Tcl are the exceptions here, and of course in Racket (and maybe in Clojure?) the pointer semantics aren't visible as they are above, but do affect performance. I like Python a lot (I edited the Weekly Python-URL for a while) but it took me longer to switch to it --- most of 2000 and 2001, really. I still occasionally reach for perl for quick command-line things.