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On contrary. No scientist, except computer scientists, wants to deal with the quirks of most programming languages. Python has several advantages that you do no
by mharig 4y ago
On contrary.
No scientist, except computer scientists, wants to deal with the quirks of most programming languages. Python has several advantages that you do not find in that combination in any other language:
1. It is very readable, IMHO the most readable of all languages.
2. It has the most useful higher-level, generic data structures built-in, e.g. dictionaries, lists, sets.
3. It is interpreted, which is the only way to make exploratory programming comfortable. Most useful for learners and scientists.
4. Its late binding data type safety makes ad-hoc programming less painful and encourages the use of tests when production readyness is needed.
Of course, Python is not perfect. I e.g. would appreciate immutable-datatypes-first and a more functional centric approach.
But one can lament about everything.
- shakow 4y ago> On contrary. No scientist, except computer scientists, wants to deal with the quirks of ~~most~~ any programming language. Fixed that for you. IME, in academia (outside of CS), Python is not especially loved at all: it's just there, with Java, R & Perl, and is more seen as a fact of life to deal with rather than anything else.
- mharig 4y agoSo why didn't/don't they use Java, R & Perl more often? Because with Java you have to write inflated Fugu, R is too specific and it lacks the vast ecosystem of Python, and Perl causes eye cancer.
- shakow 4y ago> Because with Java you have to write inflated Fugu, R is too specific and it lacks the vast ecosystem of Python, and Perl causes eye cancer. Tell me you know nothing about academia without telling me you know nothing about academia. R is a staple of anything statistics, Java is immensely used, and Perl is the backbone of half of bioinformatics.
- mharig 4y agoAnd how does just one of your statements contradict my post??
- tylermw 4y ago> R is too specific and it lacks the vast ecosystem of Python That's the first time I've ever heard this criticism of R: most staunch R critics will acknowledge R's vast breadth and depth of statistical libraries outclasses Python. Python has far more general use programming libraries (so deploying models is easier) and used to have a slight advantage in ML specific libraries, but there aren't major differences nowadays between the two ecosystems.
- mharig 4y agoSearching for 'R' in CRAN returns around 24000 R packages, pypistats.org tells about 437000 Python packages. This is not a major difference to you? I admit, that R has an advantage in bleeding edge statistics, e.g. from papers. But that is nothing >99% of statistics users need.