Why I love Python: More rambling...

[Alex Martelli]

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.



Alex