My Python annoyances

[James Stroud]

André wrote:
> I'm really annoyed at Python - and not for the reasons already
> mentioned on this list.
> 
> Everyone know that programming is supposed to be a dark art, nearly
> impossible to learn.  Computer code is supposed to be something
> impossible to read to the common person and yet reveal their secrets
> to the initiated - just remember the code displayed in the Matrix...
> 
> Python takes all of that away.  It is just too readable.  Even
> beginners can quickly learn to read code written by experts.
> 
> To make it even friendlier to beginners, Python uses ugly double
> underscores both as prefix and suffix on "magic methods" to be invoked
> only by more advanced programmers.   What's the fun in hiding the
> complexity so that beginners can stay away from potential problems.
> 
> And why, oh why, does raw_input() have to go?  Here was at least one
> good example of something that gave a hint (what does "raw" mean?) at
> the underlying complexity.  Combined with the evil of the hidden eval
> in the more obvious input(), there was at least a chance to trip
> beginners into doing something "dangerous".  Alas, that will no longer
> be the case...
> 
> Python does not even make good use of weird symbols like $ and @ and %
> to define variable types like Perl does.  Now, that's a language to
> learn if you want to be respected.  I think that Georg Brandl had it
> right in his recent proposal:
> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2007-April/072419.html
> 
> If not Perl, perhaps Python should be inspired by a language like C++,
> full of arcane stuff and, thankfully, requiring typing declaration.
> This dynamic typing thing makes it just too easy to write working
> programs quickly, especially combined with the ease of use of the
> interpreter.  And this other thing called "duck typing" is just too
> flexible to use.
> 
> No, Python should be more difficult.  It should take a full two
> minutes to compile a "Hello World" program on a modern computer.
> 
> Also, this "docstring" business has to go.  Any programmer should, as
> a rite of passage, have to spend countless hours reading obscure
> documentation to learn other people's code before finding out what
> methods can be used and how they should be used.  Having to use things
> like "dir" and "help" just makes it too easy.
> 
> And don't get me started about the absence of curly braces to define
> blocks of code.  What's the fun in making it so darn visually easy to
> define such blocks of code, removing the possibility of creating
> subtle bugs due to the misplacement of a curly bracket.  No sir, with
> Python, the structure has to be obvious at a glance - newbies can see
> it just as well as experts, thereby decreasing the aura surrounding
> the latter.  This is not fair for people that have spent dozens of
> hours in learning to program using Python!
> 
> And don't talk to me about functions, classes and methods, not to
> mention modules. Python makes it too easy to write code in many
> different styles, trying to please people who like to write only
> object-oriented code as well as those that follow the more traditional
> procedural approach.  Even "functional" type people find their way to
> write code in their preferred method using Python.  This is not right.
> 
> Fortunately, Python has incorporated some newbie-unfriendly features,
> like metaclasses and, to a lesser extent, decorators which, at last,
> make use of a special character.  There should be more of these, to
> make Python something more challenging to learn.
> 
> Programming should be more difficult than this - otherwise, how can
> programmers be respected by the common folks?
> ---
> André
> 

I want to complain about the fact that I wrote 200 lines the other day 
and it worked first time. Problem was, I spent 20 minutes before I 
realized that the lack of errors was a result of the lack of bugs.