4 ms·

This looks really cool, actually, and I'm surprised I haven't heard of this before. My incorrect gut intuition is that JavaScript devs usually don't do very mu

This looks really cool, actually, and I'm surprised I haven't heard of this before. My incorrect gut intuition is that JavaScript devs usually don't do very much in depth terminal level command work, but that's of course false on a Bayesian level. There are far more JavaScript developers in the world than there are even Python developers, to say nothing of the long tail of even less popular languages. If 30% of JS devs are heavy terminal users, and 80% of (say) Perl devs, that 30% will still swamp the 80% in terms of absolute numbers. Hell, that's half the point of Node. Can't believe my gut isn't keeping up with my head here!

TJSomething 3y ago
My big use case for this is that it's quite good for glue scripting when you're already in the context of a JS shop. My common use cases are tooling setup, CI scripts, and API response sanity checking.
from-nibly 3y ago
Here's an anecdote to help your gut. I'm a platform engineer who's favorite language is Typescript. I LIVE in the terminal. The only reason I use vscode is cause it's easier to put him into vscode than it is to put vscode into vim. Otherwise I'd be in the terminal for everything but browsing.
- a_wild_dandan 3y ago
  Likewise! I use TypeScript everywhere possible, and zx is a godsend. Unfortunately, I've recently dealt with gobs of Python for ML software. After years of writing TypeScript, it's been a...sobering reminder of many painful coding issues that I'd forgotten even existed. Made me deeply appreciate what TS gives us haha.
  - dash2 3y ago
    Would a python developer feel the same in reverse?
    - Vinnl 3y ago
      If they'd go to JavaScript, they'd feel a sense of unfamiliarity similar to what JS developers going to Python would feel. But the Python equivalent of TypeScript is mypy, and I don't think it's controversial to say (even among Python developers) that it's way behind TypeScript, generally.
  - klabetron 3y ago
    I worked at a Python shop for a bit. I spent more time than I wish to admit trying to make all of my Python behave like TypeScript (adding typings, etc.).
    - a_wild_dandan 3y ago
      Ditto. Python(3.13) types are so crudimentary that it becomes a Sisyphian struggle. Library type support is patchy at best. **kwargs is an abomination. Python is incredibly slow. Async code and anonymous functions are awkward and verbose. Hell, Python is verbose.[1] I could complain endlessly, but I'm mainly just disappointed in how little has changed since I last professionally wrote Python. The biggest benefits were basically a) familiarity, and b) powerful stats/ML libs. I hadn't seen analogs of `AttributeError`s and `TypeError`s for years, until revisiting Python and remembering that those are still unsolved issues outside of TypeScript. Ugh. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36407112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36407112
  - monbis 3y ago
    Python now has type hints which makes it closer to typescript, and easier to code in.
josephg 3y ago
> There are far more JavaScript developers in the world than there are even Python developers I don’t think that’s true. Anecdotally when I was interviewing at a recruiting company (and we let candidates pick any language to be assessed in), Python was by far the most popular choice, chosen by about 60% of candidates or something like that. Java and JavaScript came after, followed by a long tail of languages like C# and go. I assumed JavaScript would be the most popular too - but that didn't seem to be the case. I have no idea where the demand for all this Python programming is coming from, but it seems Python programmers are everywhere. Maybe it’s just popular in schools.
- __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
  If you need a programming language for you job, but you're not primarily a developer, and two languages would probably be overkill, then your one language is probably python. That's a lot of people.
  - 35mm 3y ago
    That’s exactly how I chose Python.
    - __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
      I'm curious, what was the job that needed some code but not a dedicated developer? I'm taking computational biology courses on the side, so that's the application that comes to mind for me.
      - 35mm 3y ago
        I do digital marketing for clients. There’s a large number of activities that can be made more efficient, quicker, cheaper, or better using code. For example taking a large number of text documents and turning them into video outlines with illustrations using OpenAI APIs and a quick and dirty Django app to organise everything. Or connecting up various marketing APIs using Python instead of Zapier - a lot of companies spend thousands of dollars on Zapier each month when a script would literally cost a dollar to run.

TJSomething 3y ago

My big use case for this is that it's quite good for glue scripting when you're already in the context of a JS shop. My common use cases are tooling setup, CI scripts, and API response sanity checking.

from-nibly 3y ago

Here's an anecdote to help your gut. I'm a platform engineer who's favorite language is Typescript. I LIVE in the terminal. The only reason I use vscode is cause it's easier to put him into vscode than it is to put vscode into vim. Otherwise I'd be in the terminal for everything but browsing.

a_wild_dandan 3y ago
Likewise! I use TypeScript everywhere possible, and zx is a godsend. Unfortunately, I've recently dealt with gobs of Python for ML software. After years of writing TypeScript, it's been a...sobering reminder of many painful coding issues that I'd forgotten even existed. Made me deeply appreciate what TS gives us haha.
- dash2 3y ago
  Would a python developer feel the same in reverse?
  - Vinnl 3y ago
    If they'd go to JavaScript, they'd feel a sense of unfamiliarity similar to what JS developers going to Python would feel. But the Python equivalent of TypeScript is mypy, and I don't think it's controversial to say (even among Python developers) that it's way behind TypeScript, generally.
- klabetron 3y ago
  I worked at a Python shop for a bit. I spent more time than I wish to admit trying to make all of my Python behave like TypeScript (adding typings, etc.).
  - a_wild_dandan 3y ago
    Ditto. Python(3.13) types are so crudimentary that it becomes a Sisyphian struggle. Library type support is patchy at best. **kwargs is an abomination. Python is incredibly slow. Async code and anonymous functions are awkward and verbose. Hell, Python is verbose.[1] I could complain endlessly, but I'm mainly just disappointed in how little has changed since I last professionally wrote Python. The biggest benefits were basically a) familiarity, and b) powerful stats/ML libs. I hadn't seen analogs of `AttributeError`s and `TypeError`s for years, until revisiting Python and remembering that those are still unsolved issues outside of TypeScript. Ugh. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36407112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36407112
- monbis 3y ago
  Python now has type hints which makes it closer to typescript, and easier to code in.

josephg 3y ago

> There are far more JavaScript developers in the world than there are even Python developers I don’t think that’s true. Anecdotally when I was interviewing at a recruiting company (and we let candidates pick any language to be assessed in), Python was by far the most popular choice, chosen by about 60% of candidates or something like that. Java and JavaScript came after, followed by a long tail of languages like C# and go. I assumed JavaScript would be the most popular too - but that didn't seem to be the case. I have no idea where the demand for all this Python programming is coming from, but it seems Python programmers are everywhere. Maybe it’s just popular in schools.

__MatrixMan__ 3y ago
If you need a programming language for you job, but you're not primarily a developer, and two languages would probably be overkill, then your one language is probably python. That's a lot of people.
- 35mm 3y ago
  That’s exactly how I chose Python.
  - __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
    I'm curious, what was the job that needed some code but not a dedicated developer? I'm taking computational biology courses on the side, so that's the application that comes to mind for me.
    - 35mm 3y ago
      I do digital marketing for clients. There’s a large number of activities that can be made more efficient, quicker, cheaper, or better using code. For example taking a large number of text documents and turning them into video outlines with illustrations using OpenAI APIs and a quick and dirty Django app to organise everything. Or connecting up various marketing APIs using Python instead of Zapier - a lot of companies spend thousands of dollars on Zapier each month when a script would literally cost a dollar to run.