Lina, Just a couple of comments on the topic of Python vs other languages to add to what others have said:
On 7 October 2011 16:40, lina <lina.lastn...@gmail.com> wrote: > but today I was also discouraged, I was told that you should not have > learned python, you should focus on C or bash, or D, cause python is going > to be obsolete, and I defensed that I saw lots people/apps using python, and > it's always good to learn a language well, it's helpful for you to > understand another language. I was further told that fortran is obsolete, > but still lots of fortran guys using it. > I don't know much, since I started and wanted to learn, actually I wish to > hear some encouraging words, not some words discouraging, but on another > hands, it's always good to have an open mind, so I want to hear your opinion > and perspective, I am not knowledgable about this. > I'd say rather than being obsolete, Python is, if anything, on the ascendancy. My own personal opinion as someone who has been in this game for a while now and know (for various levels of know) quite a number languages (e.g. off the top of my head: C, C++, Java, C#, Pascal, Delphi, Oberon, Python, VB, sql, prolog, Lisp, bash, awk), is that Python is (generally speaking) one of the "best" languages I've had the pleasure to work with. By "best" here I mean that it's useful and available in more contexts than most of the others, it's better at encouraging good programming practices, the included as well as third party libraries are very comprehensive, and usually as good as or better than many of the other languages I've tried, etc etc, it's fast enough [and in this context I'd point at the multiple implementations (CPython, IronPython, Jython, PyPy etc) as a further advantage, not to mention the fact that you can still fall back to writing Python modules in C if need be.], it's highly productive, it keeps you close to the problem domain and usually doesn't burden you with lower level details, etc etc. Addiontally, you might be interested to know that Python is used as one of Google's core 3 languages, as well as being extensively used in several Linux distributions as a system utility programming language (for example Redhat, Ubuntu.) So, for all these reasons (and probably many others I've not mentioned) I again suggest it's rather a stretch to claim Python is "obsolete". (I'd addtionally ask, what does something being "obsolete" mean anyway? If lots of people use a languages, is it not then by definition not obsolete?) I'll also point you at some stats which I dug up (for entertainment value, or maybe you can use it to counter some of your friend's claims of obsolescence etc.) 1) According to langpop.com, Python is overall the 6th most popular language, ahead of C# at no. 7. D only comes in at no. 28. (C is at no.1) There's several ranking listss, and Python is in fact no.1 one on a couple (the programming.reddit.com ranking and the IRC ranking). For more see here: http://langpop.com/ 2) On the TIOBE Programming Community Index (Sept. 2011) Python is similarly ranked at no. 8. D only re-entered the table recently at no. 20. For more see here: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html Hope that helps, Walter
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