Steven D'Aprano wrote:
Python is the new kid on the block,
Nonsense. Python is 20 years old (1991), which makes it older than:
Java, PHP, Ruby (1995)
Javascript (1996)
C# (2000)
Visual Basic .Net (2001)
Python is the new kid on the block.
... not chronologically perhaps, but measured in terms of acceptance
and widespread use it is only really now coming into its own. It usually
takes an advance in technology about 20 - 25 years to catch on... and
Python has finally arrived IMHO.
As an example of this... in many default setups in linux distros
today Python is now the default 'Programming' environment. This was not
true in 1991, nor was it true in 2001... in fact, this has not been true
until the past couple of years. Python is catching on in the community
at large... not just specialized development shops. As I've given my
opinion before on this list, Python is finally becoming the New BASIC
for 'people'.
Python is also the new kid on the block in educational settings.
Haskell and Erlang have dominated for some time now (in fact, many
colleges and universities have focused beginning classes on pure
functional programming)... and before that Pascal and Lisp... and in
limited ways C or C++ ./ Python is moving into that arena lately.
For me personally, the environment provided by TCL/Tk was the way
for many years... TCL was the glue, Tk was the graphics, and 'C' was the
engine (it all works together seamlessly with great performance and
minimal lines of coding). Python takes it up a notch; big time.
Because, as you've pointed out, less has to be written in 'C'. Almost
all of the app can be written in Python, with only one (or three) mods
written in 'C'... frankly, for most scripting, the whole thing can be
written in Python. But *this* is a relatively *new* discovery for much
of the community at large. (I'm not talking here about Google, nor YouTube).
Linux is in this same boat... Linux is twenty years old; however,
Linux has not enjoyed wide-spread use on the Desktop (until this year,
and part of last) and has only enjoyed wide-spread use on servers over
the past ten years. Linux is now coming into its own, and when
everything is said and done and all the dust settles history is going to
find Windows as a minor footnote in personal computing (I'm talking 100
years from now).
Linux is the new kid on the block, twenty years old and kicking
it... Python is the new kid on the block... twenty years old and
kicking it.... many of us are catching up with the new trend; however,
we will be evaluating the new trends through historic filters. This
cannot be avoided--- for linux, nor for python.
kind regards,
m harris
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