Cult-like behaviour [was Re: Kindness]

[Bart]

On 14/07/2018 10:09, Christian Gollwitzer wrote:
> Am 14.07.18 um 10:00 schrieb Marko Rauhamaa:
>> Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info>:
>>> Apparently Marko didn't notice the irony of suggesting that we display
>>> excessive commitment to GvR
>>
>> The object of the "cult" isn't GvR, it's Python itself.
>>
> 
> I agree with this observation and it feels quite strange to me. I 
> regularly use three languages (C++, Python and Tcl), all three are under 
> active development, and IMHO all of them have flaws, there are is always 
> something which is elegantly solved in one system but needs more work in 
> another.
> 
> But only in the Python community I have seen a strange "worship" of the 
> language of choice, the believe it is 100% perfect. If something isn't 
> available, then "Python doesn't need it. It's missing for a reason! 
> You're holding ot wrong!" This opinion is not so prevalent in other 
> communities. Of course, C++ programmers also think that C++ is the best 
> language, but they regularly admit that Python does have an edge in 
> clear syntax sometimes.
> 
> Typical conversation on this list / newsgroup:
> 
> Q: "I could need a ?: operator just like in C. Is there something like 
> that in Python?"
> 
> A1: "No. You don't want it. It makes the code confusing. You said, you 
> have a problem, you tried ?: - now you have two problems."
> 
> A2: "Are you crazy? You want to make Python like Java?"
> 
> A3: "Guido left it out for a reason. Guido's time machine has seen that 
> in 5 years you'll wonder what the hell ?: means"
> 
> A4: "?: is unpythonic, because there is already One Obvious Way To Do It"
> 
> --------- in the meantime, PEP 308 passes ------------
> A1: "Oh, nice, Python has invented a new feature! We're the leading edge 
> in language development!"
> 
> A2: "All hail to Guido. In 5 years, you'll ned that, and then His 
> Time-Machine has struck again!"
> 
> Q: "But isn't this the same as ?: in Java or C?"
> 
> A3: "Never. There is a HUGE difference! ?: is sooo confusing. But a if c 
> else b, look, the order is reversed. This is much more natural! And not 
> strange punctuation, English words. Python is executable pseudocode!"

Yeah...

(And I have some issues with both of those 2-way selection operators, 
but I won't go into details here...)

-- 
bart