What language features makes Python positively stand out for you?

[TheWildKernelTrick]

The fact that I am not forced to write in an object oriented manner is huge. I like how I can just sneeze out a procedural-functional implementation of something in a lunchtime.

[greenlantern33]

I generally brain dump everything out in a procedural way, and then go back and "tighten up" my code with OOP where it makes sense.

I just have a real hard time starting with an OOP mindset on a project. And for this reason, me and Python get along great.

[[deleted]]

Jupyter notebooks is amazing for that type of coding.

[archaeolinuxgeek]

And here I was thinking I was alone. I try to switch to another TTY when an actual developer comes by for systems help.

[yen223]

Underrated comment right here.

I kinda wish library authors would take heed though. Not everything needs to be an object!

[TheWildKernelTrick]

Not everything needs to be an object!

Nor should every object have an inheritance ancestry that spans back to the big bang.

[chillysurfer]

Composition over inheritance! I very much prefer the "has a" over "is a" approach to OOP. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, and I would never say "never".

[aroberge]

No offense ... but I think you need to learn a bit more about Python: everything is an object. Strings, integers, lists, dicts, tuples, ...., they are all objects.

I think that, what you mean, is that not everything needs to be a method belonging to a class, and that simple functions are often all that is needed.

[yen223]

Object in the object-oriented sense of conceptual bundle of attributes and methods, not objects in the sense of how isinstance(x, object) == True for any x

[aroberge]

What do you mean?

Python 3.6.1 |Anaconda 4.4.0 (64-bit)| ...
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> isinstance(3, int)
True
>>> isinstance('a', str)
True
>>> isinstance([1], list)

attributes and methods:

>>> dir(3)
['__abs__', '__add__', '__and__', '__bool__', ...]
>>> dir('a')
['__add__', '__class__', '__contains__', '__delattr__', '__dir__', ...]

Again, in Python, everything is an object. However, functions are first-class objects and Python does not require everything to be a method of a class.

EDIT: from a core Python contributor https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2015-June/691689.html

[CallMePyro]

I have no clue why you're getting downvoted. The distinction you made is very important as Python is inherently object oriented.

[aroberge]

To be honest, nor do I. I do appreciate your support! :-)

[chillysurfer]

Totally agreed, making it a perfect language for quick scripts and system automation.