Python's biggest compromises

[Alex Martelli]

Gerrit Holl wrote:

>> > Python predates Java.
>> Yeah, snakes drink coffee too.
> 
> Both for Python and Java is true that it is unclear when in emerged.
> Pythons have existed for a looooooooong time, so has Jawa. But only

Not really.  What existed (in Ethiopia, only) as a wild plant variant of 
coffee, before man got to it, has by now a rather thin relation with the
widespread coffee plants -- and it didn't grow on the island of Java,
nor anywhere else in Indonesia, only in a small corner of Ethiopia.

Generally, man has had a huge influence on plants and animals it
raises, a much thinner one on those it doesn't; often it makes sense 
to consider different species for the agriculturally or pastorally
"enhanced" (from man's viewpoint) variants, with respect to the
preexistent wild "cousins".  Thus, I would suggest "Java" didn't
exist before (at most) about 1000 years ago -- while phythons most
assuredly did.

> Pascal is even newer, he lived very recently in this context.

"Ada", on the other hand, being the start of "Adam", might claim
older genesis.

"C sharp" presumably requires musical instruments on a well-
tempered scale -- if so, then it seems to me it should be even
newer than Pascal.


Alex