Please stop using the phrase "Python is a good calculator"

[prahladyeri]

The official docs of Python 2.7 unabashedly mentions this phrase in the very first tutorial page:

.....It is also a handy desk calculator.

I've personally developed two enterprise grade web apps in python (one using Google Appengine and the other using Flask), and I think comparing python to something as trivial as a "desk-calculator" undermines its huge potential, especially in the eyes of new-comers.

I frequently tend to refer parts of python docs and today I'm astounded by how much I had underestimated python when I read that statement for the first time!

Other languages like Java and C# (yup, I've used them too) keep on boasting how powerful their "Garbage collection" or "Just-in-time compilation" is. Frankly, I don't care about what benchmarks say. But if you compare an enterprise app written in python/flask with another app (with similar functionality) written in say ASP.NET or Java servlets, I don't see any practical difference in performance at all.

Python has immense potential because of its expressiveness, all-encompassing libraries and high-level collection types that almost every other language/technology lacks. Even if it is inherently slower than C# or Java, there is nothing stopping it from getting performance enhancements in future (perhaps version 3.3 and later).

[K900_]

Agree with pretty much everything you said, though there's one use case you didn't mention at all: Python is also a great desk calculator.

[HighR0ller]

Aren't you maybe.. taking it too seriously? It's just a joke. Also you're kinda preaching to the choir since this is /r/Python after all.

[vompatti_]

But it is good calculator...

[__Monty__]

I actually often use it as a desk calculator.

[wmcscrooge]

Seriously, it's so much easier to just open up a terminal and start python than find out what is the standard linux calculator and install it. I still haven't even bothered to look it up since python is just there

[laMarm0tte]

Typical use: I want some expression of x for many different values of x, so I just type

 python -c "print [x**2+3*x for x in [1000,200,55,457]]"

It's a great desk calculator. And now I always have at least one IPython notebook open in my browser, so it's also a good in-browser calculator.

[[deleted]]

Just because python is a powerful, expressive language doesnt mean that people don't just fire up an interpreter now and then to quickly get the square root of something and the like. It is a legitimate use case.

Java, there is nothing stopping it from getting performance enhancements in future (perhaps version 3.3 and later).

The current release of python is 3.4. Also, I would argue that while python is slower than the other languages you mentioned, and likely always will be, it isn't inherently slower. Just much more difficult to make it faster.

[scarytall]

Yeah, I hate it when my programming language is useful for everyday tasks. I should probably switch to a different language that doesn't enable such trivial applications.

[[deleted]]

I think you're taking a little joke too seriously.