why python?

[Alan Gauld]

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 08:34:40 +0100, aleaxit at yahoo.com (Alex
Martelli) wrote:

> Functional programming is quite a different story.  Though I've never
> used it in anger, I _am_ quite convinced that if you can put together a
> team of people with PhD in maths or CS for all the development and
> maintenance you can probably get more done with it than with languages
> that let you take shortcuts by modifying data.  Whether S/ML, O'CAML,
> Haskell, Erlang, or other languages yet, best embody that ideal, I can't
> claim to know.  In the real world, I believe putting and keeping
> together a team of people who are math whizzes IS gonna be a problem.

Nice post Alex, that just about sums up exactly how I feel about
FP. It looks great, it works when I can be bothered to think hard
enough, but the idea of risking it on a real world project gives
me serious pause for thought. For mathematicians it's great for
lesser mortals, hmmm.

Alan G.
Author of the Learn to Program website
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld