Abandoning Python

[Dan Stromberg]

On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 8:49 AM, John J Lee <jjl at pobox.com> wrote:

> </troll>
>
> I still like Python after using it for over a decade, but there are
> things I don't like.
>
> What are your favourite up-and-coming languages of the moment?
>
> Here's my wishlist (not really in any order):
>
>  * A widely used standard for (optional) interface declaration -- or
>   something better.  I want it to be easier to know what interface an
>   object has when reading code, and which objects provide that
>   interface.
>

I do miss this sometimes, but pylint takes things far enough for me.


>  * Lower memory usage and faster execution speed.  Yes, this has been a
>   price worth paying.  But I do want jam on it, please: give me a
>   language where I get most of Python's advantages but don't have to
>   pay it.
>

PyPy has quite good speed.  Memory use,  I'm willing to ignore.


>  * Better support for writing correct programs in the form of better
>   support for things like non-imperative programming, DBC, etc. (with
>   the emphasis on "etc").
>

And here I thought Python had pretty good functional programming
facilities.  What do you miss?

AFAIK, DBC in terms of "if condition: raise AssertionError" (or assert).

What _is_ the "etc"?


>  * Perhaps better built-in support for common tasks in common application
>   domains.  Concurrency, persistence, database queries come to mind.
>

http://wiki.python.org/moin/Concurrency/

For persistence, I tend to use gdbm or the dohdbm I just wrote.  But there
are at least a few other options.

For database queries, why build it in?  What's wrong with using a module?


>  * Better refactoring tools, better code analysis tools (lint, search,
>   etc.).
>

I find pylint excellent.  My idea of a refactoring tool is vim's n.n.n.,
but have you looked at PyCharm?


>  * An even larger user base, contributing more and better free and
>   commercial software.
>

Gee, you want a scripting language with a larger userbase?


> I'm prepared to compromise on the last one.  Obviously, it should do all
> that while preserving all the nice features of Python -- surely an easy
> task.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/attachments/20110521/6cb9d75b/attachment-0001.html>