python vs kung fu

[Peter Hansen]

neil bromehead wrote:
> 
> It seems that, just like in chinese kung fu circles, lots of people
> are trying to justify their style (python in this case) to themselves,
> myself included. why ?, all styles can be equally effective , it
> depends on how you use them !

Without debating whether all styles are equally effective (see
Ultimate Fighting for example :-), I think there's another point
you aren't considering.  (And clearly Shorinji-ryu Karate is 
superior to chinese kung fu! ;-)

> so rather than get into endless arguments with java guys or perl guys
> about the virtues of python , lets just try to beat them at their own
> game !

Many of us are idealists who feel saddened that so many are 
effectively wasting their time with languages which are holding
them back.  We feel the urge (obviously an irresistable one :) to
try to convince those miscreants^H^H^H^H^H poor misguided souls
that they could better spend their time with Python.  That they
would be more productive, enjoy their work more, produce higher
quality results, and spend more time programming and less time
debugging.  That pragmatism and simplicity are far more 
important than optimization and the ability to write entire
applications in one line.

We are not so much arguing as trying to show them that we 
_understand_ their points, and in fact used to think the same
way, but that we have found a better way and want to see them
try it out for themselves.  Definitely sounds like religion:
probably indistinguishable, but that doesn't mean we should
all stop and silently use Python for our own applications and
never breathe a word of it to another soul...

Some of us just don't want to be the "quiet revolutionary"
who has played such an important role in history, sitting at
home peacefully practicing his new world-view and waiting
for the rest of the world to realize how effective it is...

-- 
----------------------
Peter Hansen, P.Eng.
peter at engcorp.com