Python is fun (useless social thread) ;-)

[Rune Strand]

In 2002, I was in need of a multi-platform language. My choice became
Python, in spite of friends fiercly defending Perl and some interesting
Slashdot-articles on Ruby. But back on university, I met a very, very
pretty C++ girl who said many favourable things about Python. She never
became mine, but the sympathy for Python that she implanted in my mind,
turned out to make me immune against the Perl propaganda.

So Python (for me) could be said to be either a substitute for the
prettiest of the (many) pretty girls of Norway or a mindchild of the
same.

I found a script demonstrating search/replace in files. And even if I
hadn't coded in a year, I found Python surprisingly easy to read,
understand and change. So there I was.

> Did you have to learn it for a job?

No, but I use it as often as possible in work contexts.

> Or did you just like what you saw and decided to learn it for fun?

That's more like it.

> Also, how did you go about learning it?

I ported som other scripts (Bash, PHP, and DOS bat-files) to Python
while searching the net each time I became lost. Porting is a good
learning method.

> Was there any necessity in the specifics you learned,
> or did you just dabble in something
> (e.g. wxPython) for fun?

Mostly fun and some practical problems. Later I've used Boa Constructor
to make GUI's for some customers.

> Are there still some things you feel you need to learn or improve?

Sure, I struggle with OO when it gets complicated and new features like
decorators. And idioms. But generally it's programming skills and
algorithmic scent I need.

> Additional comments/complains here:   :)

I'm a bit afraid that the new features and the turning to concepts like
iterators and generators are making Python elitistic. Old python code
floating around the net is generally easy to read, while newer often is
harder to grasp. I don't like it when my own inherent stupidity becomes
to obvious to hide.