PEP scepticism

[Andrew Kuchling]

bernhard at intevation.de (Bernhard Reiter) writes:
> I agree as a python programmer (which I meant by "python user" btw).
> There are important additions (e.g. unicode) and the language
> has to be maintained.

It's also a matter of where effort is expended for the most benefit.
The new features such as static scoping, list comprehensions, &c., are
nice to have and I'm pleased that the list of language shortcomings is
shrinking.  But would I rather have had list comprehensions or a
catalog of all Python extensions similar to CPAN?  I'd have much
preferred the latter, because it would make a greater improvement in
my programming life than, say, list comprehensions do.  This doesn't
imply that list comprehensions don't improve my life at all (they do),
but

I've noticed that in online forums, people now rarely beat up on
Python for the language itself, except for the old reliable
indentation knee-jerk reaction.  Instead people write about how
convenient CPAN makes it to find modules, or how useful the XML
modules are, or how EJB lets them write elaborate business systems.  I
don't think improving Python the language will win new converts at
this point; improving the standard library, development environments,
or the documentation is more likely to bear fruit.

--amk