The Incredible Growth of Python (stackoverflow.blog)

[Rick Johnson]

On Sunday, September 10, 2017 at 12:36:52 PM UTC-5, Ned Batchelder wrote:
> On 9/10/17 10:46 AM, Rick Johnson wrote:
> > The stain of Python3's violent and radical changes to the
> > core philosophy of the language may never be washed clean,
> > and although we might have survived Python3 _eventually_,
> > type-hints is like a wooden stake driven into the heart of
> > this community. It's almost like they _want_ to destroy
> > this language.
> 
> Given the recent Stack Overflow blog post about Python's
> accelerating growth, and TIOBE rating it #1, you'd think
> the sky-is-falling doom-sayers would get tired of being
> wrong all the time.

You mean the same TIOBE index[1] that ranks programming
languages based on search engine queries?

You mean the same TIOBE index[2] that currently ranks Python
as 5th in 2017; 7th in 2012; 6th in 2007; 11th in 2002; and
27th in 1997? Hey, when you're at the bottom, the only
direction you can go is up!

When has Python ever been #1 on the TIOBE index? 

It is Java who has reigned supreme!

TIOBE is junk science, and sorry to burst your bubble, but
Stack Overflow blog posts are just opinion pieces. In fact,
it seems the most informative part of the article can be
found in the comment section, and in a single paragraph, a
bright lad outlines the dangers of picking low hanging fruit
from statistical fairy trees:

    """ An interesting analysis, but one problem with
    statistical analysis is assigning a causation to a
    correlation. So, the correlation is one of number of views.
    The causation assumption is because of the number of users.
    However, there are other potential causation theories, such
    as lack of documentation, inexperience of users/viewers,
    source of viewership (e.g. students versus professionals),
    etc.""" -- Sid1138
    
So the "request for help" has more to do with noobs than
actual usage, and while Python may indeed be "popular", and
yes, that "popularity" has risen significantly over the last
few decades, we must ask ourselves: what group is Python
most popular with? If the answer is first year CS students,
then Python is merely an incidental rung on the ascension up
an academic ladder, soon to be forgotten in the professional
lives of these CS students, and replaced by the more
enterprise friendly langauges of Java and/or C.

Python (at least historically) was a great introductory
language because of the clean syntax and the batteries
included stdlib, which spared first year students the misery
of abstract syntaxes, rigid structural orthodoxy, and
tyrannical purist methodologies of more asinine languages.

And while many of us here share a great fondness for the
Python language, we must not delude ourselves into thinking
that Python is going to be some "new wave of the future".
Python is a toy language that is great for teaching, and
loads of fun to write, but it'll never compete at an
enterprise level with long established languages like Java
or C. And if the Grand Poobah believes that type-hints will
magically elevate the highly dynamic Python to enterprise
level, urm, well, then... as my good friend Nietzsche
informs me, a confrontation with the absurd may be in his
near future.

The future belongs to compiled, statically typed languages
who combine the low level necessities with the higher level
practicalities. The Go language is a step in that direction,
but with such an abysmal stdlib, it has yet to "go" very
far.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIOBE_index
[2] https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/