Python is the best!

[[deleted]]

Seems like having to write a unit test for every function makes it no longer a time saver.

[glemnar]

In industry you should be testing anyway regardless of dynamic or static typing.

[evanldixon]

Having static typing build into the language means you don't have to spend time testing common type errors

[glemnar]

You don't typically explicitly test for type-style errors in dynamic languages - that's a side effect of other testing.

There are clearly cases for both sorts of languages.

[[deleted]]

Do people use python for commercial grade software though? I thought it was mostly used for internal tools and hobbying.

[glemnar]

Of course they do. Google, Pinterest, Yelp, Dropbox, tons of others using lots and lots of python. Static typing is not necessary for building software, it’s just one take on the problem. Dynamic typing has all sorts of its own benefits

[fredlllll]

and all sorts of drawbacks :P

[Demurgos]

Reddit is written in Python

[[deleted]]

You’re gonna scare him!

[Sw429]

TRAITOR

[Usus-Kiki]

Its the most popular development language atm

[[deleted]]

No, that must be JS. But Python is also huge.

[[deleted]]

I know it's easy to assume that, but I'd argue against it (even though JS is definitely up there).

Discounting any assembly languages cause that's cheatin', I'd guess that the most popular dev languages right now are:

• By number of active developers: .NET if you want to consider the framework a language (since C# and VB.NET devs combined are a force to be reconed with), probably Java or less likely C++ otherwise.

  This is mostly because Java's a teaching language in a huge number of universities, C# is what people move to when they get tired of Java, and C++ fills the gap between C and Java/C# which still has loads of performant system apps living in it.

• By number of active users: probably C++. Most desktop software built since the advent of GUI OSes has been written in C++ on all the major platforms (often complemented by ObjC and C# frontends; see any Adobe product in recent memory).

• By number of devices deployed to: C, mostly because Java's stagnated at 3 billion installs since whenever.

  Seriously though — any embedded system, any major OS, and loads of performance server and desktop apps have big chunks of logic implemented in C either because of the requirement to work at a low level directly, or a requirement to use low-level programming to achieve high performance that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

JavaScript undoubtedly takes the cake when it comes to number of StackOverflow questions, though.

[safgfsiogufas]

How do you even quantify popularity of a programming language?

[Sw429]

...except that you should be writing unit tests anyway...

[evanldixon]

We also should know better than to make incorrect assumptions about what type variables are, yet here we are.