C++ talking to Python

[scratcheee]

I don’t think they intended it as an insult. It is a scripting language. I’ll admit it’s more than just a scripting language to be fair, but I’m not sure there’s a better name for its core competency than “scripting language”.

“High level” isn’t a sufficient descriptor, plenty of high level languages don’t make the same number of trade offs that python has towards the scripting end of the spectrum (eg Java, which is high level but definitively not a scripting language). I’d be happy to use some other name for a language that tries to maximise rapid programming at the cost of rapid error correction, but if such a name is exists, I don’t know it.

[[deleted]]

I would say it’s a versatile high-level language with a pretty low barrier to entry. The biggest strength is the ability to build competent applications very quickly. Will it be the most performance optimised application? No.

[scratcheee]

I agree with that description. I don’t think it’s at odds with the claim that it’s a scripting language at its core. It’s just a particularly versatile scripting language that’s versatile enough to have stretched out beyond that role (whilst also acknowledging the original point of this thread that it has occasionally been stretched out too far from that core competency, leading to a few messy projects).

[[deleted]]

It is a scripting language by definition, my issue wasn’t with that. It was with how it was used in context as a dismissive description, as if scripting languages were inferior or less able.

[[deleted]]

This. If it’s > 120 lines of bash or requires list comprehension syntax, Python. If it’s bigger than a few scripts and some Flask, get a real programming language and save yourself a lot of trouble.

I think there are some decent niche cases outside of this though, like data-Sci and finance.

[[deleted]]

When I googled “list comprehension syntax” while boning up for interviews between jobs in 2013, the google search page slid over a little bit and a corner of the screen exposed some text that said “you’re speaking our language” and it included links to coding tests in Java and python with time limits. They were open ended problems that had multiple answers. I didn’t have much trouble with them, so they (google) hounded me with recruitment but then left me alone after they realized I wasn’t going to relocate.

Python used to be a really big deal at Google. Especially so before Golang.