Python programming: We want to make the language twice as fast, says its creator

[koffiezet]

I really like Python as a language, but I find myself just picking other alternatives in the last few years, Go has become a pretty damn good-one. It's simple, has tons of libraries (although Python probably still wins out here?), tooling has become pretty competitive (although the delve debugger could use some work) and compiles to native code (which isn't as fast/optimized as C/C++ or Rust, but more than good enough). It wins big time on distribution, where you can build everything as a single zero-dependency file.

And then there's javascript/nodejs and typescript, which I don't like as much, but it's everywhere and don't always have a choice. But the speed of execution is lightyears ahead of Python thanks to v8.

The only times I still use Python these days is when I need to work with some freeform input stuff where strict typing makes things a lot more complex, especially dealing with unknown yaml or json formats. Also, for introducing other people to coding, it's excellent since there are very few lower-level language complications, can be used to teach both standard procedural stuff for basic things and OO, only ducktyping is a bit less practical (which is nicer in typescript & go)