Are the critiques in "All the things I hate about Python" valid?

[Terry Reedy]

On 2/16/2018 10:22 PM, boB Stepp wrote:
> This article is written by Nathan Murthy, a staff software engineer at
> Tesla.  The article is found at:
> https://medium.com/@natemurthy/all-the-things-i-hate-about-python-5c5ff5fda95e

To add to what other have said:

Here is what the author said about word choice: " The word “dynamically 
typed” has a positive connotation, more so than “weakly typed.” 
Conversely, the word “strongly typed” sounds more positive than saying 
“statically typed.” Diction matters, because proponents of different 
camps will select a word-choice that reflects their bias of one 
programming language over another."  Exactly.

His dreadful strawperson code snippet should not be allowed even in a 
beginning programming class, let alone in professional programs.

def foo(x):
     if is_valid(x):
         return "hello world"
     else:
         return bar(x)

PEP 8 recommends meaningful names and a docstring that begins with 
"Return a ...".  The meaningless names and lack of doc are what makes 
foo hard to read, not static versus dynamic typing.

If you want to run on multiple cores, use multiple processes, either 
with multiprocessing or subprocess.  Module multiprocessing 
intentionally has an api similar to threading, so one can convert at 
least some multiple-thread programs to multiple processes and cores.

If you want safe programs, do not use unsafe weakly and statically typed 
C, which allows buffer overruns if one on uses the unsafe strxxx 
functions instead of the safer strnxxx functions.  Buffer overruns may 
still be the most common exploit of viruses and other malware.

Python coredevs try to be security conscious by adding security features 
and recommending good practices.  We just cannot force people to upgrade 
and follow best practice.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy