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WhatsApp has a very narrow use case and feature set to support. Flutter is a multi-platform framework for developing apps like WhatsApp. It seems like a apples

WhatsApp has a very narrow use case and feature set to support. Flutter is a multi-platform framework for developing apps like WhatsApp. It seems like a apples and oranges here.

giancarlostoro 2y ago
I'm comparing the impact. Small tens of developers, affecting millions of people.
- siamese_puff 2y ago
  Sure and 1 guy built flappy birds played by tens of millions. The complexity is a completely different ball game IMO.
  - giancarlostoro 2y ago
    Flappy Bird was taken off the store by its author, if you take WhatsApp off the app store, that would be a completely different reaction to Flappy Bird.
- Apocryphon 2y ago
  Millions of people can be affected in different ways.
kgeist 2y ago
What about Python? They had 34 core developers in 2017 [0]. Python is used by millions of devs. They have to support a multitude of platforms as well. Same goes for a lot of programming languages like Go: a pretty small core, the rest is external contributions. And they have to support all sorts of platforms/configurations as well (probably more than Flutter does). [0] https://pythondev.readthedocs.io/core_devs.html https://pythondev.readthedocs.io/core_devs.html
- sterlind 2y ago
  to be fair, Python's performance has lagged far behind comparable languages (e.g. JS) for at least a decade. maybe more devs could give it the V8 treatment?
  - devjab 2y ago
    I’m not sure what you mean by this but Python can be very performant when you want it to be. That is to say, when you build computation heavy parts in C (or Zig), and remember to avoid the various performance pitfalls like not using generators when you didn’t want to load all those millions of elements into your memory. What sets professional Python aside from most other programming languages is that everyone who uses it knows that it’s terrible and how to deal with that. Which will sometimes be replacing parts (or all) or it. To say that it’s inherently less performant than JS is frankly silly though.
    - jonas21 2y ago
      So, basically: Python is performant when you don't use Python?
      - criddell 2y ago
        Keep in mind performant just means that it works in an effective or expected way. It doesn’t necessarily say much about performance.
      - kccqzy 2y ago
        Yes. Python is performant when all the performance-sensitive code is written as extension code.
      - devjab 2y ago
        Yes. Is that so weird? JS is also performant when you don’t use JS considering you’re running it on C or Rust and are likely using the FFI if you’re doing any form of computation heavy work.

WhatsApp has a very narrow use case and feature set to support. Flutter is a multi-platform framework for developing apps like WhatsApp. It seems like a apples and oranges here.

giancarlostoro 2y ago

I'm comparing the impact. Small tens of developers, affecting millions of people.

siamese_puff 2y ago
Sure and 1 guy built flappy birds played by tens of millions. The complexity is a completely different ball game IMO.
- giancarlostoro 2y ago
  Flappy Bird was taken off the store by its author, if you take WhatsApp off the app store, that would be a completely different reaction to Flappy Bird.
Apocryphon 2y ago
Millions of people can be affected in different ways.

kgeist 2y ago

What about Python? They had 34 core developers in 2017 [0]. Python is used by millions of devs. They have to support a multitude of platforms as well. Same goes for a lot of programming languages like Go: a pretty small core, the rest is external contributions. And they have to support all sorts of platforms/configurations as well (probably more than Flutter does). [0] https://pythondev.readthedocs.io/core_devs.html https://pythondev.readthedocs.io/core_devs.html

sterlind 2y ago
to be fair, Python's performance has lagged far behind comparable languages (e.g. JS) for at least a decade. maybe more devs could give it the V8 treatment?
- devjab 2y ago
  I’m not sure what you mean by this but Python can be very performant when you want it to be. That is to say, when you build computation heavy parts in C (or Zig), and remember to avoid the various performance pitfalls like not using generators when you didn’t want to load all those millions of elements into your memory. What sets professional Python aside from most other programming languages is that everyone who uses it knows that it’s terrible and how to deal with that. Which will sometimes be replacing parts (or all) or it. To say that it’s inherently less performant than JS is frankly silly though.
  - jonas21 2y ago
    So, basically: Python is performant when you don't use Python?
    - criddell 2y ago
      Keep in mind performant just means that it works in an effective or expected way. It doesn’t necessarily say much about performance.
    - kccqzy 2y ago
      Yes. Python is performant when all the performance-sensitive code is written as extension code.
    - devjab 2y ago
      Yes. Is that so weird? JS is also performant when you don’t use JS considering you’re running it on C or Rust and are likely using the FFI if you’re doing any form of computation heavy work.