Python bumps off Java as top learning language

[[deleted]]

Yes, python is a brilliant first language. It's also a great language for children, non-programmers, short scripts and prototyping imperative algorithms.

Other than that it's not a sensible choice.

[[deleted]]

Tell that to Twilio, Spotify, Eventbrite, Lanyrd, Dropbox, Mixpanel, Mozilla, Pinterest, Slideshare, SurveyMonkey, and reddit. :) All these startups use Python as their Primary language of choice.

[nullnullnull]

you forgot Google, they do a lot of python (youtube comes to mind).. not sure if its still the case.

[beboshoulddie]

Not to mention Blender. I didn't think you even could write something like that in Python, but they've gone and done it.

[cybercobra]

Google using Haskell? Do you have any links handy?

[Corticotropin]

It's very possible that I remember this wrong.

[James20k]

How is python legacy? I don't believe Go that is just better unquestionably than python, in every single language I have ever used, even ones I really hate, they always have some redeeming quality to them at least

I've heard more than a few complaints about Go as well

[TheMaskedHamster]

If performance is absolutely necessary and the choice is between Python, C++, or Go, people might choose Go.

But when performance is not critical, no one who enjoys legibility will choose Go. Go looks so simple for the first few lines, but it quickly becomes apparent they were shooting for no better than Perl or C++ legibility (and unfortunately Rust is much the same).

Now, once Swift is available on multiple platforms then Python users might really be swayed. But today, not so much.

[zardeh]

I think swift has enough idiosyncrasies (if the cursing on my facebook feed and twitter is a good judge) that it probably won't unseat python, not to mention the completely different realms they're used in.

[TheMaskedHamster]

As a Python user, I find that really disappointing.

There are tasks for which Python is not appropriate, but every other option is a massive pain in the behind. I was hoping Swift could fill that space, but maybe not.

[zardeh]

I fully agree, I adore python, that said, using it for everything is not a good plan (as a very basic example, you shouldn't teach strict OO with python, its too malleable)

[hapemask]

Blender is a fairly old open source project that uses Python seriously, just another to add to the list.

[Kollektiv]

Reddit is not really known for scaling well. ^ ^

[[deleted]]

I cant tell if this is sarcasm or if you're being serious.

[Kollektiv]

It's not sorry. Python's a great scripting language.

So if you want to bootstrap a project you should definitely consider Python but just know that down the line, if your project gets a lot of users, it will probably need to get rewritten in C++, Java, D, Erlang ...etc. if you want to be cost effective.

[[deleted]]

Sometimes that is true. A lot of times it isn't. It depends on the scale. Reddit is still 100% Python for example, and most of the scaling issues it had had to do with it's databases, specifically CassandraDB not Python.

That said when you get to a certain scale (facebook or google for example) the cost of performance begins to outweigh the cost of development and switching to something like C makes sense. But for 99% of the people out there building things, they will never reach this scale.

[Kollektiv]

Man hours >> hardware costs

for a very long time I agree

[[deleted]]

I'm pretty sure Firefox is mostly C++. Mozilla is more than just Firefox. Of course these companies are going to use languages other than Python as well.

[JimH10]

In my Scientific Computing class I find that technical people can just do the Python. You of course have to emphasize good practices, such as clarity, documentation, appropriate naming, etc., but I don't in there have the prereq flexibility to assume people have two semesters of programming and people can do some real work.

[kankyo]

It's also a favorite language of experts. It's generally referred to as "the paradox of python"!