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Python is One of the Most Popular Programming Languages

17 points by octopus 16y ago

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
Here's a link to the "article", instead of to a random comment: http://www.infernodevelopment.com/python-becoming-most-popular-programming-language http://www.infernodevelopment.com/python-becoming-most-popul...
- intellectronica 16y ago
  Please, can the original poster edit the link? It really doesn't make sense to link to an anchor in the template section.
jefe78 16y ago
Its not surprising. We make extensive use of Python. Its great. I get so busy doing so many things that I often don't develop for months at a time. This used to be a problem when I used C. With Python its a non-issue.
intellectronica 16y ago
It's true (and it's great news) that Python is becoming one of the most important and popular programming languages, but this article does a pretty poor job at showing this and explaining why. Other than Python's popularity for web development (where it faces competition from Ruby and PHP) Python has been adopted in many other settings, and that probably contributed quite a lot to the numbers indexed. For example, in the last year many of the biggest financial institutions have moved to developing critical parts of their systems in Python. In fact, it can probably be said that Python became popular _despite_ not becoming very popular for web development until quite late in the game.
ot 16y ago
> [...] Python, Ruby, Haskell, Ada are gaining popularity Ada???
- gte910h 16y ago
  Defense Contractors
alexeiz 16y ago
The article is about the author that has been a fan of PHP for a long time and now he loves Python. This is the base of his claim of Python popularity.
Dobbs 16y ago
I doubt I'm the only one but I really don't like python. Python makes simple things hard. It has no switch statements, no lambdas. It has significant white space (I've tried and tried but I can't get over it). There is no simple way to drop down to the command line which means I can't easily use it to replace the scripting I have to do on a day in and day out purpose. On a side note I greatly prefer go's approach to white space. It's not significant but there is a piece of software that rewrites code to the "standard".
- elithrar 16y ago
  Python certainly has lambdas[1], and they're very 'typical' lambdas at that. [1]: http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/lambda_functions.hawk http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/lambda_functions.hawk
  - Dobbs 16y ago
    You are correct and I mistyped. Python has limited lambdas not a lack of lambdas.
- d0mine 16y ago
  > Python makes simple things hard. Some examples might help here. > It has no switch statements Python uses if/else, hashtables, OO constructs instead http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3103/ http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3103/ > no lambdas. Python has lambdas, but their usage is discouraged in preference of explicit code blocks and named functions. You can use them if you must. >It has significant white space The indentation level of your statements is significant, but not whitespace in general http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/block_indentation.hawk http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/block_indentation.hawk > There is no simple way to drop down to the command line which means I can't easily use it to replace the scripting I have to do on a day in and day out purpose. Some people find Python usable for system administration. There is a book "Python for Unix and Linux System Administration" (2008).
  - Dobbs 16y ago
    > Some examples might help here. I mostly script things so my programs are generally the type that are a bit too complicated for bash. Python makes this type of programming difficult. For example. I want to run a command and get its output back. I'm then going to go and parse the output and preform transformations on it. In order to accomplish this I have to use popen to open multiple pipes to the program and then read all of its output. I feel like I'm writing C. > Python uses if/else, hashtables, OO constructs instead Both if/else and hashtables are dirty hacks. Neither allows clean code. OO constructs can work but require large amount of setup to preform a simple task like parsing getopts. > Python has lambdas, but their usage is discouraged in preference of explicit code blocks and named functions. You can use them if you must. You are correct. I replied to another person's comment but haven't/won't edit my previous post. > The indentation level of your statements is significant, but not whitespace in general My apologies for using common terminology for significant indentation, significant indentation is what I meant. Either way I (subjective) dislike it. I personally find it harder to read than braces or ruby's end. > Some people find Python usable for system administration. I will strongly disagree here. I've tried to use Python on several occasions for system administration. > There is a book "Python for Unix and Linux System Administration" (2008) I'll check it out maybe it will show me somethings that change my views. A lot of this is entirely subjective. At least for my type of work I find Python to be an annoyance more than a helper. Though to be fair I find all languages to be pretty ugly/nasty when you take then out of their designed use.

17 points by octopus 16y ago

Here's a link to the "article", instead of to a random comment: http://www.infernodevelopment.com/python-becoming-most-popular-programming-language http://www.infernodevelopment.com/python-becoming-most-popul...

intellectronica 16y ago
Please, can the original poster edit the link? It really doesn't make sense to link to an anchor in the template section.

jefe78 16y ago

Its not surprising. We make extensive use of Python. Its great. I get so busy doing so many things that I often don't develop for months at a time. This used to be a problem when I used C. With Python its a non-issue.

intellectronica 16y ago

It's true (and it's great news) that Python is becoming one of the most important and popular programming languages, but this article does a pretty poor job at showing this and explaining why. Other than Python's popularity for web development (where it faces competition from Ruby and PHP) Python has been adopted in many other settings, and that probably contributed quite a lot to the numbers indexed. For example, in the last year many of the biggest financial institutions have moved to developing critical parts of their systems in Python. In fact, it can probably be said that Python became popular _despite_ not becoming very popular for web development until quite late in the game.

ot 16y ago

> [...] Python, Ruby, Haskell, Ada are gaining popularity Ada???

gte910h 16y ago
Defense Contractors

alexeiz 16y ago

The article is about the author that has been a fan of PHP for a long time and now he loves Python. This is the base of his claim of Python popularity.

Dobbs 16y ago

I doubt I'm the only one but I really don't like python. Python makes simple things hard. It has no switch statements, no lambdas. It has significant white space (I've tried and tried but I can't get over it). There is no simple way to drop down to the command line which means I can't easily use it to replace the scripting I have to do on a day in and day out purpose. On a side note I greatly prefer go's approach to white space. It's not significant but there is a piece of software that rewrites code to the "standard".

elithrar 16y ago
Python certainly has lambdas[1], and they're very 'typical' lambdas at that. [1]: http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/lambda_functions.hawk http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/lambda_functions.hawk
- Dobbs 16y ago
  You are correct and I mistyped. Python has limited lambdas not a lack of lambdas.
d0mine 16y ago
> Python makes simple things hard. Some examples might help here. > It has no switch statements Python uses if/else, hashtables, OO constructs instead http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3103/ http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3103/ > no lambdas. Python has lambdas, but their usage is discouraged in preference of explicit code blocks and named functions. You can use them if you must. >It has significant white space The indentation level of your statements is significant, but not whitespace in general http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/block_indentation.hawk http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/block_indentation.hawk > There is no simple way to drop down to the command line which means I can't easily use it to replace the scripting I have to do on a day in and day out purpose. Some people find Python usable for system administration. There is a book "Python for Unix and Linux System Administration" (2008).
- Dobbs 16y ago
  > Some examples might help here. I mostly script things so my programs are generally the type that are a bit too complicated for bash. Python makes this type of programming difficult. For example. I want to run a command and get its output back. I'm then going to go and parse the output and preform transformations on it. In order to accomplish this I have to use popen to open multiple pipes to the program and then read all of its output. I feel like I'm writing C. > Python uses if/else, hashtables, OO constructs instead Both if/else and hashtables are dirty hacks. Neither allows clean code. OO constructs can work but require large amount of setup to preform a simple task like parsing getopts. > Python has lambdas, but their usage is discouraged in preference of explicit code blocks and named functions. You can use them if you must. You are correct. I replied to another person's comment but haven't/won't edit my previous post. > The indentation level of your statements is significant, but not whitespace in general My apologies for using common terminology for significant indentation, significant indentation is what I meant. Either way I (subjective) dislike it. I personally find it harder to read than braces or ruby's end. > Some people find Python usable for system administration. I will strongly disagree here. I've tried to use Python on several occasions for system administration. > There is a book "Python for Unix and Linux System Administration" (2008) I'll check it out maybe it will show me somethings that change my views. A lot of this is entirely subjective. At least for my type of work I find Python to be an annoyance more than a helper. Though to be fair I find all languages to be pretty ugly/nasty when you take then out of their designed use.