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I would argue that python's popularity comes with numpy/pandas, jupyter notebooks, and the recent popularity of AI/ML/data science. Yes it's useful in other are

I would argue that python's popularity comes with numpy/pandas, jupyter notebooks, and the recent popularity of AI/ML/data science. Yes it's useful in other areas (flask and django are somewhat popular) but nowhere near as popular as its use for ML. Scala actually became MUCH more popular with Spark. I think the original point stands - the platform pulls the language. Java is popular due to the jvm - it was the first jvm language after all. It got popular before others like scala & clojure managed to get off the ground, at all.

WastingMyTime89 5y ago
> I would argue that python's popularity comes with numpy/pandas, jupyter notebooks, and the recent popularity of AI/ML/data science. Python was hugely popular long before these were a thing. It was already seen as one of if not the most beginner friendly language at the beginning of the 2000s. It became the language of choice for ML because it was already popular with beginners not the other way round.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Yes, before Django there was Zope.
CraigJPerry 5y ago
>> Java is popular due to the jvm That's not how history played out at all. Java spent much of its life being pitched as a way to make C++ developers more productive. The jvm was actively hated by many for years - slow startup times, excessive memory usage, it didn't used to enjoy the rich tooling ecosystem it has now and it was seen as opaque and hard to tweak for performance. To this day it's not that hard to find Java devs who want off the hotspot jvm - whether that's to go onto other JVMs with different tradeoffs (Azul or whatever) or whether to go native compilation (GraalVM) instead.
- virgilp 5y ago
  I wrote another comment where I explained "popular due to jvm" better - the productivity gain was real, but came from the GC which was....JVM. No, the JVM wasn't hated initially - not until it became hugely popular and people started pushing it to the limit. Or well, at least that's how I remember the history, I might be wrong; human brains are notoriously fallible and I'm too lazy to search and validate/confirm my version of it :)

WastingMyTime89 5y ago

> I would argue that python's popularity comes with numpy/pandas, jupyter notebooks, and the recent popularity of AI/ML/data science. Python was hugely popular long before these were a thing. It was already seen as one of if not the most beginner friendly language at the beginning of the 2000s. It became the language of choice for ML because it was already popular with beginners not the other way round.

pjmlp 5y ago
Yes, before Django there was Zope.

CraigJPerry 5y ago

>> Java is popular due to the jvm That's not how history played out at all. Java spent much of its life being pitched as a way to make C++ developers more productive. The jvm was actively hated by many for years - slow startup times, excessive memory usage, it didn't used to enjoy the rich tooling ecosystem it has now and it was seen as opaque and hard to tweak for performance. To this day it's not that hard to find Java devs who want off the hotspot jvm - whether that's to go onto other JVMs with different tradeoffs (Azul or whatever) or whether to go native compilation (GraalVM) instead.

virgilp 5y ago
I wrote another comment where I explained "popular due to jvm" better - the productivity gain was real, but came from the GC which was....JVM. No, the JVM wasn't hated initially - not until it became hugely popular and people started pushing it to the limit. Or well, at least that's how I remember the history, I might be wrong; human brains are notoriously fallible and I'm too lazy to search and validate/confirm my version of it :)