Matlab vs Python (was RE: Discussion: Introducing new operators for matrix computation)

[Bjorn Pettersen]

Paul Prescod wrote:
> 
> Charles Boncelet wrote:
> >
> > ...
> >
> > On my soapbox: As you say, Python "isn't even close to the most popular
> > tool for its problem domain".  And yet, the Python community refuses to
> > sully the language by adding things that might make it more popular (not
> > just more operators for numerical work, but stackless for palm pilots,
> > +=, ++, support for reloadable operators, typechecking, list
> > comprehensions, more elaborate iterators, to name a few.)  There might
> > be arguments against each of these, but taken together it indicates an
> > unwillingness to change.  Python is perfect as is, and we certainly
> > don't need to adopt the methods of the unwashed.
> 
> Python 2 will likely have += and list comprehensions. Typechecking is
> scheduled for addition once the details are worked out.

And remember that many of these issues are _very_ hard once you dig
below the surface. E.g typechecking for languages like Python is a
_research_ area, and although I agree with the idea that it would be
nice to have, I really don't want it if we can't do it "right". (and the
Stackless semantics now has to be implemented for _three_ distinct
implementations of Python, not just CPython...)

> If Python did not grow slowly and conservatively, I dare say that
> neither you nor I would be using it today. It would be just another
> overgrown language that caters to everyone's preferences.
> 
> Your paragraph implies that Python would be more popular if it attempted
> to adopt everything that is in popular languages. I think that that is a
> simplistic view of language evolution.

I think Charles is probably correct that there might be a certain
"unwillingness to change" in the Python community. Sometimes, especially
when you think that the small little improvement that you'd like to add
would make life soo much easier for everyone, this can be quite
obnoxious.  Most Python programmers is coming from other languages,
however, and it's not that we're adverse to change, it's just that we've
seen what happens when you start to add small 'neat' features (e.g. C++
and Perl, while great languages, do not have the syntactic or semantic
cleanliness of Python).

-- bjorn