3 ms·

> I think the Ruby solution is more readable. I disagree and I’ve used both professionally for about the same amount of code.

nickjj 4y ago
I think this is purely a personal preference but I also think there is a bias towards list comprehensions being more difficult to mentally parse. I do a lot of contract work and chatted with a ton of folks ranging from beginners to veterans. A lot of them (well more than half) avoid list compressions, especially when working with teams because it's such a mixed bag of either being able to instantly understand them or it requires more effort. Personally I don't use them in my code (for both reasons). Both Ruby solutions are much more clear to me even though I have no functional programming background. I have no preference towards functional styles either, I would say it's the opposite. I struggled with Elixir long enough that I stopped using it.
- empthought 4y ago
  I disagree about list comprehensions, as do more than half the people I’ve asked over the years.
eternalban 4y ago
I don’t use either, and also have an admittedly irrational dislike for Python. That said, the Python variant is more readable imo as well.
michaelteter 4y ago
And yet, in the production Python codebases I've worked with, list comprehensions are rarely seen. Usually it's typical loop iterations. I wonder why that is?...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- empthought 4y ago
  This says much more about you and the developers and codebases you work with than anything to do with Python list comprehensions. Coming from a point of zero knowledge of the codebase, I picked Flask. I picked the cli.py module in Flask. And what do I find? https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L46 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L141 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L142 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L821 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L1016-L1019 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L1023-L1025 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L1027 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L1031 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... The keyword "for" occurs twice as often in comprehensions and generator expressions as it does in "typical loop iterations!"

nickjj 4y ago

I think this is purely a personal preference but I also think there is a bias towards list comprehensions being more difficult to mentally parse. I do a lot of contract work and chatted with a ton of folks ranging from beginners to veterans. A lot of them (well more than half) avoid list compressions, especially when working with teams because it's such a mixed bag of either being able to instantly understand them or it requires more effort. Personally I don't use them in my code (for both reasons). Both Ruby solutions are much more clear to me even though I have no functional programming background. I have no preference towards functional styles either, I would say it's the opposite. I struggled with Elixir long enough that I stopped using it.

empthought 4y ago
I disagree about list comprehensions, as do more than half the people I’ve asked over the years.

eternalban 4y ago

I don’t use either, and also have an admittedly irrational dislike for Python. That said, the Python variant is more readable imo as well.

michaelteter 4y ago

And yet, in the production Python codebases I've worked with, list comprehensions are rarely seen. Usually it's typical loop iterations. I wonder why that is?...

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
empthought 4y ago
This says much more about you and the developers and codebases you work with than anything to do with Python list comprehensions. Coming from a point of zero knowledge of the codebase, I picked Flask. I picked the cli.py module in Flask. And what do I find? https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L46 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L141 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L142 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L821 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L1016-L1019 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L1023-L1025 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L1027 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#L1031 https://github.com/pallets/flask/blob/main/src/flask/cli.py#... The keyword "for" occurs twice as often in comprehensions and generator expressions as it does in "typical loop iterations!"