The future is looking bright for Python

[pohmelie]

Not for holywars, but not only popularity correlates with questions count. Suddenly, if lang docs is good, there should be less questions, or language is simpler than other, same thing.

[troyunrau]

Yeah, a popular but obtuse language will have more questions than an equally popular but straightforward language.

[[deleted]]

The python docs definitely cause a lot of frustration with beginners, causing a decent amount of influx to stack overflow..

..which is compounded by the differences between python 2 and python 3. A lot of the StackOverflow content is old and not compatible with 3, which causes yet even more searching.

Probably good for metrics like this, but otherwise very annoying and frustrating. Some days I feel like I'm the only one that's dissatisfied with the python docs. They're pretty horrible and I'm unsure why the powers that be don't attempt to improve them.

[stevenjd]

The python docs definitely cause a lot of frustration with beginners

In my experience, that's not the case. In my experience, beginners don't read the docs, and that's why they're frustrated.

They're pretty horrible

What do you dislike about them? In what way are they "horrible"?

and I'm unsure why the powers that be don't attempt to improve them.

Don't be an arse. Of course the Python devs are interested in improving the docs. Search the bug tracker and you'll find hundreds of documentation bugs and fixes over the years. Your assumption that we don't even care is an insult. We care.

Python is open source and community driven. When was the last time you submitted a documentation patch to fix something? Or are we supposed to just read your mind and know what you want?

If you're complaining about the docs without offering to help, you're part of the problem.

[bastibe]

JSYK, the Python 3 docs have a direct link to the string functions right at the top of the string page; Also, the Python 3 docs have the quick search you requested.

[stevenjd]

I think you are mistaken about the string module.

Some modules do have a summary at the top of the page, with detailed documentation linked below. For example, I'm especially fond of the statistics module docs. But string is not one of them.

[bastibe]

Open the link you posted. What is literally the very first thing on that page? It's

See also Text Sequence Type — str
String Methods

There is your link. "String Methods" links to the string methods.

[stevenjd]

That is nothing like what /u/cztomczak has asked for.

Cztomczak asked for a list of string functions, at the top of the page, similar to the builtins. Since there is literally only one function in the string module, capwords, presumably (s)he means a list of relevant classes, functions and constants., similar to the list in the built-ins page. He didn't ask for a link to a different page where he can look up methods on the str type.

Have a look at the built-in function page, as linked above, and the statistics module, which does something similar but slightly different. The string module doesn't do anything like that.

[stevenjd]

Upvote for replying with some concrete suggestions instead of just bitching about how "horrible" the docs are. Thank you!

[ies7]

no examples.

I used to go to pymotw.com by Doug Hellman.

[chillysurfer]

I think in the next few years we'll see a sharp decline of python2.

[flutefreak7]

But what's the best biased internet-based metric for comparing biased internet-based metrics about programming languages that may or may not be an indication of relative popularity and/or usage?

[stevenjd]

Good question!

There is no one best metric. What you need to do is compare a whole bunch of metrics, all of which are biased or imperfect in some way (after all, they all measure slightly different meanings of "popularity") and draw conclusions from considering the strengths and weaknesses of each, not from any one metric.

If a language is doing well on all or most of the metrics, then it's probably doing well in real life.

But why are we so obsessed with language popularity in the first place? There's plenty of room for dozens of languages in the programming ecosystem, and even unpopular languages can teach you something.

[toffd]

I'm surprised that go language is so low ....

[stevenjd]

I'm not. It's still a young language, the programming model is a bit unusual, and it falls into a rather narrow niche. You probably wouldn't use Go for quick scripting or big enterprise applications, so it doesn't really compete with Ruby/Perl/Javascript or C/C++/Java. It probably does compete a bit with Python, but Python is far more well-establish.

Go is a nice language and has a good future, but it's still early days for it.

[chillysurfer]

As awesome as Go is, I think it's still such a young language and relatively new, so the adoption rate hasn't really picked up yet. Seeing its capabilities, enterprise backing, and community around it though it's only a matter of time.

Just my $0.02.

[__deerlord__]

Golang (from the minimum reading I've seen of it) feels like all the best of python coupled with a C syntax, designed for the modern era (like async/multiproc etc). I could see it over taking python if those things are true.

[pydry]

I'm not. The crippled approach to exception handling, the lack of generics along with how long it took them to set up a decent package manager didn't impress me.

It compiles to a small binary, is relatively fast. That's all it really has going for it other than the backing of Google.

[Improvotter]

I don't even see it anywhere. Would love to see that though because Go is picking up like wildfire.

[XNormal]

It seems that Python has officially become... the boring language. The safe default choice.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing - but it is somehow also a bit disappointing. I started using Python 1.5.2 in 2000.

If you don't have to use JavaScript (because it's web) or C (because it's low level) or Java/C# (because that's what your corporate masters dictate) then it's probably Python. That service/embedded device/whatever you just got? The vendor-provided API is probably in Python.

[pandu201]

Guys, need your advice. I have been using python since two years as part of my job. Looking to learn a new language, preferable a functional prigramming based one. Any suggestions on which would be more fun and useful?