I'm also not impressed or depressed by the OP article. It appears as though someone promised this guy the world in the form of Python and he's disappointed that it's not perfect and that there is still work involved.
He mentions Javascript in the article and how easy it is to do this and that with Javascript if you only have this or that tool or library. Take this line for example: In JavaScript, if you want a command-line UNIX tool, you can grab nar and *build > **package* something self-contained almost immediately. ... but you still need to build it. Let me rewrite this for Python: In Python, if you want a command-line UNIX tool, you can grab click <http://click.pocoo.org/5/> and *build something almost immediately*. The setuptools and pip integration is just as effortless as the nar configuration and creates system wide hooks to invoke your command line utility. Not sure why he references nar as a utility to "build" a CLI tool, it looks like all it does is package things up. You'll still need to write the CLI part yourself or get a library. But who is using the software you write? Is it such a stretch for *your* average user to have an interpreter installed? Are you shipping out self contained node.js command line utilities to the average Joe? The second you write "command-line" you've thrown the average Joe out the window. The person using your software can easily install mini/anaconda in a single command and install your CLI tool in the next command. In fact they probably had node.js or python installed within 24 hours of setting up their computer if they're interested in your tool. There is a lot wrong with the article, but yes Python has holes. Just like Leo has holes and just like Javascript has holes and just like node.js has holes, just like the CLI tool I wrote has holes, just like C++ has holes, just like Go has holes, and just like Smalltalk has holes. No language is perfect and no development environment is perfect and you need to acquire knowledge to use them all. The article is trolling. On Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at 2:21:57 AM UTC-4, Edward K. Ream wrote: > > On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 7:56 AM, Kent Tenney <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> https://glyph.twistedmatrix.com/2015/09/software-you-can-use.html >> >> "Python has a big problem. While it’s easy and fun to produce software >> in Python, it’s hard to produce software that people - especially >> laypeople who are not professional software developers - can use." >> >> Seems to reflect issues that come up regarding Leo >> > > Well, I'm neither impressed with nor depressed by this post ;-) > > As so often happens on the net, the post overstates the problems and > understates the available resources. > > "py2exe, on the other hand, *only* supports Python 3.3+, and so is > unusable with a lot of important python libraries." > > This statement understates/misstates a fundamental fact about Python, > namely that Python 3 is *the* plan for the future. If a solution to a > problem exists in Python 3, then according to Guido, that solution is, > almost by definition, good enough. Yes, we may have to wait, but we will > have to have to wait for any other solution as well. > > Furthermore, the post overstates the problem. For example, IPython is > wildly successful in the scientific world. IPython users are scientists, > not "devs", and yet this doesn't cause great problems. > > In short, the post is misleading. Finally, a statement such as: > > "it is *honestly easier to learn an entirely new programming language and > toolchain, and rewrite an entire application* than to figure out how to > build a self-contained executable in Python right now." > > > is, um, unconvincing. Rewriting an app in another language is unlikely > ever to be a viable approach. The OP pleads that "he doesn't have time" to > solve the distro problem. But he has time to rewrite an app in another > language? My bullshit alarm just went off. > > Edward > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
