Why I love Python: More rambling...

[Peter Otten]

Alex Martelli wrote:

> Ville Vainio wrote:
> 
>> Andy Jewell <andy at wild-flower.co.uk> writes:
>> 
>>> Python does seem to magnify the flaws in other languages: everything
>>> else seems (to me at least) to be second-best now.
>> 
>> This might be one of the reasons they don't teach Python in schools -
>> it would be hard for the employers to motivate students to work w/ the
>> crappy languages the companies expect them to use.
> 
> Absolutely.  That's the same reason why the only writing implement
> they teach you to use in school is a chisel and a marble slab -- if
> they taught e.g. word processors it would be hard for employers to
> motivate you to use pen and paper.
> 
> 
>> Another aspect of motivation is accomplishment - a thing that might
>> make a C++ programmer proud of his achievement seems like a trivial 15
>> minute job for a Pythonista, and when that Pythonista is tasked w/ the
>> C++ job he doesn't get the kick from the accomplishment. And 6 hours
>> of debugging that "trivial" program doesn't help either.
> 
> Yep.  Managing to write even just "SPQR" with the marble and chisel
> without cracking the slab makes you proud (that Q is _so_ tricky!) --
> with a word processor, or pen and paper, you'd get no kick from the
> accomplishment.  And six hours of sandpapering and polishing that
> marble slab doesn't help either.

Ah, what fools were those ancient Romans to make such a hassle with their
epitaphs, when a small sheet of paper saying "I'll be back in a minute"
would have done as well...

Peter