Interesting talk on Python vs. Ruby and how he would like Python to have just a bit more syntactic flexibility.

[Jonathan Gardner]

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 10:22 AM, John Bokma <john at castleamber.com> wrote:
> Jonathan Gardner <jgardner at jonathangardner.net> writes:
>> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 11:16 PM, Lie Ryan <lie.1296 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Now, why don't we start a PEP to make python a fully-functional language
>>> then?
>>
>> Because people don't think the same way that programs are written in
>> functional languages.
>
> Heh! When I learned Miranda it felt natural to me. Prolog on the other
> hand...
>
> In short: I am afraid you're overgeneralizing here; it depends on one's
> background. If not, citation needed ;-)
>

Unfortunately, this is something that is hardly measurable. Short of a
survey (of whom? of what?), there can be no objective evaluation. To
date, I don't know of any such studies or surveys.

I won't deny that really smart people enjoy the challenge of
programming in a functional style, and some even find it easier to
work with. However, when it comes to readability and maintenance, I
appreciate the statement-based programming style, simply because it's
easier for me to understand an debug.

-- 
Jonathan Gardner
jgardner at jonathangardner.net