Python vs. C#

[Doug Tolton]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 14:57:55 -0700, "Brandon J. Van Every"
<vanevery at 3DProgrammer.com> wrote:

>I am not convinced.  As the books tell it, C# was created to take the best
>features of Java and some other languages.  And as a dyed in the wool C++
>programmer, most of what I've learned about C# so far certainly looks like
>sanity.  I am currently thinking of it as "C++ without the pain."

It's amazing that you pass yourself off as an expert in C# when you
are just reading the propaganda still. Come back and have this
discussion when you have actual experience in C#.

I've used C# full time for over two years.  Finally I got disgusted
with it and swtiched my entire company over to Python.

>From my experience I have found the following:
-C# is buggy and inconsistent.
-C# debugger is a piece of crap, the immediate window is worthless
-C# Garbage Collection algorithm is worthless, essentially it never
collects until it's way to late.  By that time you are screwed.
-C# static typing is a major pain in the ass, it causes far more bugs
and errors than having loose types like C ever did.
-The .net widgets are slow and *really* buggy.  Events get lost, they
choke are large volumes of text, and the drawing.dll just pukes on
load randomly.
-The lack of a multi-line string drives me bananas.  Try building up a
big HTML form using a string builder sometime.
(this is just the beginning of a long list)

Python:
-Internally consistent, cleanly designed, to the point of being
beautiful
-Dynamic typing is amazing
-First class functions (try mimicking that in C# - ha)
-Tuple unpacking is a god send
-List types are the cats meow
-Dictionaries are blazingly fast
-using metaclasses and the magic methods gives you amazing power and
flexibility
(this is just the beginning of a long list)

Overall Python is a language written by programmers for programmers.
You can feel it when you use it.  When you need a function, and you go
looking for it, it's already been written and it works just like you'd
think it would.  It's blazingly fast, and is a joy to program in.

Overal C# is a buggy, slow, half implementation of Java.  It's written
by committe for people dumber than themselves.  If you need to perform
some function that pushes the limits of the language, it will either
choke, or throw an error saying it was explicitly disallowed.  It's
painful attempting to write real world apps in C#.

When you can come back with some real world experience using some of
these languages you are bashing then your opinion might mean
something.  Right now you are just spewing Microsoft hyperbole and
propaganda.

Doug Tolton