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

[Ned Batchelder]

On 2/20/18 5:47 AM, Antoon Pardon wrote:
> On 19-02-18 16:18, Ned Batchelder wrote:
>> On 2/19/18 9:54 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>>> On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 13:28:26 +0000, Paul Moore wrote:
>>>
>>>> [1] The most basic question, which people making such claims often
>>>> can't
>>>> answer, is "Do you mean that values are strongly typed, or that names
>>>> are? Or did you mean that variables are, because if so Python doesn't
>>>> even have variables in the sense that you mean" Programming language
>>>> semantics are complex.
>>> An excellent point.
>>>
>>> The distinction between typing *values* and *names* is a good one.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> I guess I'll have to continue to grit my teeth as people say, "Python
>> doesn't have variables."   Why can't we say, "Python's variables work
>> differently than other languages"?
>>
>> --Ned.
> Which other languages. It seems python variables seem to work just like
> lisp, scheme and smalltalk.
>
C.

That is one of the reasons for my frustration: the "Python has no 
variables" slogan is incredibly C-centric.  I understand the importance 
of C, and in the early days of Python, there was good reason to assume 
that people were familiar with C.  These days, there are far more 
mainstream languages that work just as Python does.

To your "work just like" list we can add Javascript, Ruby, PHP, and Java 
(for objects, not primitives).

--Ned.