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0 pointsmruts6y ago0 comments

I’m not sure what Python’s goals are to be honest. It seems to me that the language is outclassed in every way by better, more consistent, more powerful, and more performant languages.

Python programmers seem content implementing the same things over and over again. Like, for example, flattening a list/monad.

List of things python doesn’t have but should: pattern matching, multi-line lambdas, more data structures (look at Scala for an example of what kind of data structures a standard library should provide), real threading, options, monads, futures, better performance, and more.

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kgwgk6y ago

"In a 1999 report, Van Rossum highlighted the following as his goals for Python:

It should be an easy and intuitive language, just as powerful as major competitors.

It should be open source, so anyone can contribute to its development.

Its code should be understandable as plain English.

It should be suitable for everyday tasks, allowing for short development times."

https://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/guido-van-...

“The first sound bite I had for Python was, "Bridge the gap between the shell and C."

So I never intended Python to be the primary language for programmers, although it has become the primary language for many Python users. It was intended to be a second language for people who were already experienced programmers, as some of the early design choices reflect.‘

https://www.artima.com/intv/pyscaleP.html

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j88439h846y ago

Interesting list, thanks. FWIW, my view on these..

- I agree about pattern matching, that'd be nice.

- Multi-line lambdas haven't been important, but maybe I'm missing something.

- The list of data structures in the stdlib doesn't matter to me, since the 200k libraries on PyPI make up for it, and since packaging is easy nowadays with Poetry, they are as good as built-in but they get more frequent fixes and improvements than would be possible for the stdlib. Maybe there are some good side-effects of having extra types built in, based on a community of people using these types?

- Threading, I suppose, though Python isn't really the right language overall for that stuff anyway.

- Options, and monads, yeah that'd be nice.

- Futures are an idea whose time has come and gone IMO, but they're in asyncio anyway :\.

- For performance, PyPy is quite fast for many use cases.

Is there a language that has all these things built in and has a repl?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse