python vs kung fu

neil bromehead neil at qualica.com
Wed Jul 18 03:55:45 EDT 2001


Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote in message news:<3B544778.CFC9293B at engcorp.com>...
> 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...

thats not really what I meant , Noise is good , and we have to make as
much as possible , but maybe not by arguing with them , rather make
them jealous about a python developers innate sense of superiorority,
ooh and industrial sabotage is always good ! i started using python,
without the consent of my employers, to tie up loose ends in projects
i was working on , got the jobs done before deadlines , and they work
, who can argue with that . now i dont have to justify python to
anyone in my office and no-ones minds if i use it. in fact perl and
java guys in my office come to me and say how would you handle this in
python and often end up using my code. and some guys are coding a bit
of their own now

i get the feeling that if we argue with these guys we are just showing
them even python developers are still trying to justify why on earth
they chose their style in the first place , so we lose our spirit ! or
alternatively how would you feel if Crane guys were saying
Shorinji-ryu Karate is bad and that you should be doing Crane for
these reasons ? if it was me , i would get angry and stop listening ,
its like the art of war , their are much more subtle ways of getting
people to take python seriously, and in the end theyre probably much
noisier !

but i do wish there were more job announcements with Python Developer
Wanted written at the top - see further down the string .



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