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> Of course one wonders why they haven't been a low-hanging fruit over the past 25 years. Because it's developed and maintained by volunteers, and there aren't

> Of course one wonders why they haven't been a low-hanging fruit over the past 25 years. Because it's developed and maintained by volunteers, and there aren't enough folks who want to spend their volunteer time messing around with assembly language. Nor are there enough volunteers that it's practical to require very advanced knowledge of programming language design theory and compiler design theory as a prerequisite for contributing. People will do that stuff if they're being paid 500k a year, like the folks who work on v8 for Google, but there aren't enough people interested in doing it for free to guarantee that CPpython will be maintained in the future if it goes too far down that path. Don't get me wrong, the fact that Python is a community-led language that's stewarded by a non-profit foundation is imho its single greatest asset. But that also comes with some tradeoffs.

mgaunard 4y ago
first, there are lots of volunteers that want to mess with assembly language. second, CPython is just a C interpeter, there isn't much assembly if any. third, contributing to CPython is sufficiently high-profile you could easily land a 500k-job just by putting it on your CV. No, those are not the real reasons why it hasn't happened before.
- Angostura 4y ago
  Go on then - what are the real reasons, in your mind?
  - coldtea 4y ago
    Unfriendly core team?
    - mgaunard 4y ago
      Why should major technology projects be "friendly" to random people? I think the word you're looking for is "politics".
      - metadat 4y ago
        Being friendly is inclusive and generally a winning strategy compared to others. The underlying source of the Politics of Python and associated perceptions stems from the core team's culture of not being "friendly".
        mgaunard 4y ago
        People act according to their interests. They have no obligation to go out of their way to cater to yours. The entitlement of the new generation of open-source contributors to require political correctness or friendliness is so destructive it's ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be involved with any project that prioritizes such zealotry on top of practicality.
        metadat 4y ago
        It's not about entitlement so much as about ensuring the project can reach it's full potential and continue to stay relevant and useful in perpetuity as people come and go. The world constantly changes, projects adapt or become less useful.
staticassertion 4y ago
> Because it's developed and maintained by volunteers Who is working on python voluntarily? I would assume that, like the Linux kernel, the main contributors are highly paid. Certainly, having worked at Dropbox, I can attest to at least some of them being highly paid.
- AndrewOMartin 4y ago
  Raymond Hettinger gets his Python Contributor salary doubled ever couple of years.
- int_19h 4y ago
  https://devguide.python.org/motivations/ https://devguide.python.org/motivations/

mgaunard 4y ago

first, there are lots of volunteers that want to mess with assembly language. second, CPython is just a C interpeter, there isn't much assembly if any. third, contributing to CPython is sufficiently high-profile you could easily land a 500k-job just by putting it on your CV. No, those are not the real reasons why it hasn't happened before.

Angostura 4y ago
Go on then - what are the real reasons, in your mind?
- coldtea 4y ago
  Unfriendly core team?
  - mgaunard 4y ago
    Why should major technology projects be "friendly" to random people? I think the word you're looking for is "politics".
    - metadat 4y ago
      Being friendly is inclusive and generally a winning strategy compared to others. The underlying source of the Politics of Python and associated perceptions stems from the core team's culture of not being "friendly".
      - mgaunard 4y ago
        People act according to their interests. They have no obligation to go out of their way to cater to yours. The entitlement of the new generation of open-source contributors to require political correctness or friendliness is so destructive it's ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be involved with any project that prioritizes such zealotry on top of practicality.
        metadat 4y ago
        It's not about entitlement so much as about ensuring the project can reach it's full potential and continue to stay relevant and useful in perpetuity as people come and go. The world constantly changes, projects adapt or become less useful.

staticassertion 4y ago

> Because it's developed and maintained by volunteers Who is working on python voluntarily? I would assume that, like the Linux kernel, the main contributors are highly paid. Certainly, having worked at Dropbox, I can attest to at least some of them being highly paid.

AndrewOMartin 4y ago
Raymond Hettinger gets his Python Contributor salary doubled ever couple of years.
int_19h 4y ago
https://devguide.python.org/motivations/ https://devguide.python.org/motivations/