Blog "about python 3"

[Devin Jeanpierre]

On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 6:27 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> Fast is never more important than correct. It's just that sometimes you
> might compromise a little (or a lot) on what counts as correct in order for
> some speed.

Is this statement even falsifiable? Can you conceive of a circumstance
where someone has traded correctness for speed, but where one couldn't
describe it that latter way? I can't. I think by definition you can
always describe it that way, you just make "what counts as
correctness" be "what the customer wants given the resources
available". The conventional definition, however, is "what the
customer wants, imagining that you have infinite resources". With just
a little redefinition that seems reasonable, you can be made never to
be wrong!


I avoid making unfalsifiable arguments that aren't explicitly labeled
as such. I try to reword them as, "I prefer to look at it as ..." --
it's less aggressive, which means people are more likely to really
listen to what you have to say. It also doesn't pretend to be an
argument when it isn't.

-- Devin