5 ms·
The nice thing is that such beauties of interfaces are rediscovered by the younger generations. The rise of the REPL interface for python is a great example whi
by ktpsns 6y ago
The nice thing is that such beauties of interfaces are rediscovered by the younger generations. The rise of the REPL interface for python is a great example which makes this language feel a lot like BASIC on stereoids. And the notebook interface was kind of a game changer for open source scientific computing. Despite volunteered by some software from the 80s and 90s (thinking of the young Mathematica and Matlab GUIs), it is something which really got widespread nowadays, from my feeling. The distributed nature of these tools over the web is probably boosting this experience.
Furtheremore, the small joy for programming can always be around the corner. Take for instasnce https://tixy.land/ https://tixy.land/ , its a small creative code environment. Or take https://d3js.org/ https://d3js.org/ as a bigger ecosystem which made animations and svg really fun and easy with javascript.
- jimmaswell 6y agoThis use case is part of why I'm so disappointed in some python 3 changes. 2 was definitely more suitable for a newcomer experimenting in a REPL by virtue of its greater simplicity and intuitiveness.
- beagle3 6y agoIt’s really surprising how converting print from a statement to a function made repl debugging much less convenient.
- bonzini 6y agoHow so?
- beagle3 6y agoI can’t give a logical explanation, but after 3 years, “print(x)” in the repl is still a cognitive dissonance whereas “print x” is natural. (Doesn’t bother me in the editor, only in the repl)
- ktpsns 6y agoI don't see "print(x)" being in any way worse then "print x". If you want to save some characters, you can always just write the symbol in the REPL line: >>> x=42 >>> x 42 This already works in the standard python REPL, no need for ipython. You can literally just omit the print call/statement: >>> print("the answer to life is %d" % x, "not 0") the answer to life is 42 not 0 >>> "the answer to life is %d" % x, "not 0" ('the answer to life is 42', 'not 0')