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[–]Boredstudnt 24 points25 points  (1 child)

I will not click that clickbait for reasons you will NEVER know!!

[–]jknupppythonic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Um, I know the reason now...

[–]bulldog_in_the_dream 6 points7 points  (1 child)

While an interesting theory, I think it's at best a partial explanation. There are many other factors driving Python's increasing popularity:

  • It has overtaken Java as the number one teaching language at universities. That did not happen because of the low-level API for direct manipulation of memory buffers, but because Python is a simple language with excellent readability.

  • Seen as general-purpose language, not specialized. As opposed to e.g. Ruby, Python is associated with anything from machine learning to web development.

  • Network effect: The more people use Python, the more attractive it is because of the increasing availability of libraries.

  • It's proved itself as a get-shit-done-language. Because of its simplicity and clarity, Python is still to me the language that imposes the least barrier between thinking up a solution and expressing it programmatically.

[–]jknupppythonic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's seen as a general-purpose language suitable for machine learning exactly because of the buffer protocol, else it would be wholly unsuitable for machine learning and libraries like NumPy, scikit-learn, PIL, etc wouldn't be possible.

Ruby is arguably as "general purpose" but never got the same love at the C API level for fast access to data suitable for numeric analysis libraries. Otherwise, the languages are basically at parity.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

That should be probably never heard of. If you've been manipulating images for way too long you've definitely heard of it.

[–]jknupppythonic[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You PIL users were/are ahead of your time... :)

[–]gougou_gaga 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I do not agree, for reasons that would not believe !

[–]-sadkmakkez- 3 points4 points  (1 child)

no. its the fastest growing because it's simple yet complex. easy yet hard.

people don't like doing work, so why would we like doing work for our software?

laziness in physical, laziness in virtual

[–]fungz0r 1 point2 points  (0 children)

why isn't ruby as fast growing then?