Typing system vs. Java

[Christopher Barber]

anamax at earthlink.net (Andy Freeman) writes:

> Christopher Barber <cbarber at curl.com> wrote in 
> message news:<psoy9os5a88.fsf at jekyll.curl.com>...
>> But why can't Python be fast enough without resorting to extensions?
>> Forcing users to learn C in order to make their Python code fast detracts
>> from Python's advantage as a simple, easy-to-use language.
> 
> Of course, there's another alternative - with Python's development time
> advantages, they'll have more time to come up with better algorithms, so
> they may not need the extension.

Sure.  In many cases that will be true, but I thought we were talking about
the other cases here.

>> personally don't think that type declarations would add much complexity,
>> but I guess I can see how someone new to them might be confused.
> 
> You must have missed a post or two.  If they're required, they either aren't
> adequate, or they are complex, or both (C).

Even if required, I don't think that type declarations add that much
complexity.  They would definitely not have any affect on the standard
complexity metrics.  To me complexity has to do with the number of
interconnections in your program and adding type information does
not change that, and could in fact lower it by preventing certain
relationships.

It would make the language as a whole larger, and therefore more difficult to
assimilate for programmers, but that is not quite the same thing.

> > Of course, that same person would be lost once they had to learn C.
> 
> And maybe they'll never have reason to learn C.  I suspect that a fair
> number of SQL programmers don't.  I'm sure that many Excel programmers
> don't.  Yet, both are able to write programs.  Why is it reasonable to
> assume that a Python programmer will need to know C?

I am not doing so.  I am not at all saying that Python does not have good
enough performance to keep many developers happy.  I am asking about what can
be done about the wall that developers will hit when they *can't* get
sufficient performance: either they will have to resort to C extensions or
switch to another language; in either case they will have to learn a different
language.
 
- Christopher