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> The single most impactful technological choice when building payments is the programming language. Got it. So why was Python chosen again? Call me crazy but

> The single most impactful technological choice when building payments is the programming language. Got it. So why was Python chosen again? Call me crazy but I want things that touch my money to be rock solid.

rickydroll 2y ago
Remember, it's not the language. You can write COBOL in any language. I want to see good techniques, testing, and practices in any code that touches my money. I don't care what language they write it in.
- constantcrying 2y ago
  >You can write COBOL in any language. That just isn't true. There are languages which force on you a minimum standard of quality and eliminate errors. E.g. static typing makes a whole range of errors impossible, similarly to how rusts borrow checker makes certain other kinds of errors impossible. In a sense you get test cases for all of these errors for free, as the compiler verifies they aren't present. Of course bad software can be written in any language. But some, like python, make sure it is as easy as possible.
  - incrudible 2y ago
    One could argue that Python forces you to write an enormous amount of regression tests, which will help build an understanding of the system. Whether that is more productive at the end of the day is a different question.
    - constantcrying 2y ago
      >Python forces you to write an enormous amount of regression tests It doesn't. You can just have it break occasionally.
  - rickydroll 2y ago
    The concept of "writing COBOL in any language" does not refer to the quality of the code, only the shape of it. You can tell a coder's core language by a couple of properties, such as seeing how their code is laid out on the page or how they use variables. For example, Fortran users have and do write very clean code, especially in the scientific community. However, you can always tell who has written Fortran because loop variables are almost always i,j,k,l The other such patterns include where you put block markers (braces, begin/end, if/fi), naming conventions for variables. You can always tell who's a Java programmer because they can only fit a couple of funcitno/variable names per line. But as I joke about Java and naming, that's another giveaway. How do people name variables, methods etc. You're right, though. It's also not hard to write bad code in any language stylistically consistent with the language and its community. I've seen so much bad C/C++ that was perfectly organized and structured C code.

rickydroll 2y ago

Remember, it's not the language. You can write COBOL in any language. I want to see good techniques, testing, and practices in any code that touches my money. I don't care what language they write it in.

constantcrying 2y ago
>You can write COBOL in any language. That just isn't true. There are languages which force on you a minimum standard of quality and eliminate errors. E.g. static typing makes a whole range of errors impossible, similarly to how rusts borrow checker makes certain other kinds of errors impossible. In a sense you get test cases for all of these errors for free, as the compiler verifies they aren't present. Of course bad software can be written in any language. But some, like python, make sure it is as easy as possible.
- incrudible 2y ago
  One could argue that Python forces you to write an enormous amount of regression tests, which will help build an understanding of the system. Whether that is more productive at the end of the day is a different question.
  - constantcrying 2y ago
    >Python forces you to write an enormous amount of regression tests It doesn't. You can just have it break occasionally.
- rickydroll 2y ago
  The concept of "writing COBOL in any language" does not refer to the quality of the code, only the shape of it. You can tell a coder's core language by a couple of properties, such as seeing how their code is laid out on the page or how they use variables. For example, Fortran users have and do write very clean code, especially in the scientific community. However, you can always tell who has written Fortran because loop variables are almost always i,j,k,l The other such patterns include where you put block markers (braces, begin/end, if/fi), naming conventions for variables. You can always tell who's a Java programmer because they can only fit a couple of funcitno/variable names per line. But as I joke about Java and naming, that's another giveaway. How do people name variables, methods etc. You're right, though. It's also not hard to write bad code in any language stylistically consistent with the language and its community. I've seen so much bad C/C++ that was perfectly organized and structured C code.