The Incredible Growth of Python (stackoverflow.blog)

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 1:12 PM, Steve D'Aprano
<steve+python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Sep 2017 03:14 am, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
>
>> Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed at ix.netcom.com>:
>>
>>> In contrast, every sample I've seen of the async library comes
>>> across as "magic happens here -- at some point in time".
>>
>> That magic can be learned, in principle. I'm afraid few programmers will
>> be willing/able to get over the hump, and there are a number of tricky
>> aspects to be extra careful about.
>
> The huge popularity of asynchronous routines in the Javascript and Node.JS
> community is evidence that it won't be "few programmers" but a whole lot of
> them.

I agree, but the comparison isn't completely fair. Async functions in
JS are an alternative to callback hell; most people consider async
functions in Python to be an alternative to synchronous functions.
(They might also be considered an alternative to threading or
multiprocessing.) So the uptake is going to be driven less by "hey
look how clean this is now" and more by "you can now improve
throughput by doing more than one thing at a time" or by "you don't
need the hassles of threading/multiprocessing".

ChrisA