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I think it's more fair to say that Python became widely used for purposes it wasn't designed for. Originally Python was meant as a language to write small to m

I think it's more fair to say that Python became widely used for purposes it wasn't designed for. Originally Python was meant as a language to write small to medium scripts in, not a language for complex programs benefiting from high performance.

SemanticStrengh 4y ago
in other words, a historical accident
- Spivak 4y ago
  Outside of Java, Kotlin, and Go are there any languages designed specifically for large scale corporate/enterprisey use?
  - ThomasBHickey 4y ago
    Ada
  - FartyMcFarter 4y ago
    COBOL ?
  - SemanticStrengh 4y ago
    C# indeed. But even javascript has a bearable JIT nowadays. Also no need for the vague enterprisey connotation, only features and performance are needed, which e.g. scala provide and Go do not (feature wise).
    - Spivak 4y ago
      Ohh and Swift! I just mean that lots of popular languages were historical accidents when it comes to their use on large scale projects and it’s pretty rare (I suppose less now it seems) for someone to go out and invent languages specifically for large scale repos and “toy language is retrofitted for scale” is a more common narrative.
      - SemanticStrengh 4y ago
        Yes historically this has been true but we are past this time, no need for each new language to duplicate it VM, its JIT, its GC.. GraalVM solve it all and bring ecosystems interop.
  - aeyes 4y ago
    Erlang/OTP but you are probably asking about the usability once you have 100+ developers working on a project so it doesn't quite fit in. Even Go is questionable here when compared to Java, C# and even C++.
stdbrouw 4y ago
I mean, I guess technically it started as an "educational language", but much of its early-ish development was aimed at turning it into an enterprise language that could rival Java. Guido worked for Zope Corporation from 2000-2003, Zope is a big hairy enterprisey CMS. 10-15 years ago, people at Google for a very long time toyed with the idea of making Python fast enough so they could just use it for everything, cf. Unladen Swallow. That said, it's true that Python has ended up being used in places that were not envisioned by its original creators, but the implication that it is therefore a bad fit for those settings does not automatically follow. Ruby was never meant to be a "web language" but many seem to enjoy using it that way.

SemanticStrengh 4y ago

in other words, a historical accident

Spivak 4y ago
Outside of Java, Kotlin, and Go are there any languages designed specifically for large scale corporate/enterprisey use?
- ThomasBHickey 4y ago
  Ada
- FartyMcFarter 4y ago
  COBOL ?
- SemanticStrengh 4y ago
  C# indeed. But even javascript has a bearable JIT nowadays. Also no need for the vague enterprisey connotation, only features and performance are needed, which e.g. scala provide and Go do not (feature wise).
  - Spivak 4y ago
    Ohh and Swift! I just mean that lots of popular languages were historical accidents when it comes to their use on large scale projects and it’s pretty rare (I suppose less now it seems) for someone to go out and invent languages specifically for large scale repos and “toy language is retrofitted for scale” is a more common narrative.
    - SemanticStrengh 4y ago
      Yes historically this has been true but we are past this time, no need for each new language to duplicate it VM, its JIT, its GC.. GraalVM solve it all and bring ecosystems interop.
- aeyes 4y ago
  Erlang/OTP but you are probably asking about the usability once you have 100+ developers working on a project so it doesn't quite fit in. Even Go is questionable here when compared to Java, C# and even C++.

stdbrouw 4y ago

I mean, I guess technically it started as an "educational language", but much of its early-ish development was aimed at turning it into an enterprise language that could rival Java. Guido worked for Zope Corporation from 2000-2003, Zope is a big hairy enterprisey CMS. 10-15 years ago, people at Google for a very long time toyed with the idea of making Python fast enough so they could just use it for everything, cf. Unladen Swallow. That said, it's true that Python has ended up being used in places that were not envisioned by its original creators, but the implication that it is therefore a bad fit for those settings does not automatically follow. Ruby was never meant to be a "web language" but many seem to enjoy using it that way.