The Python Paradox, by Paul Graham

GnuVince writes "Paul Graham has posted a new article to his website that he called "The Python Paradox" which refines the statements he made in "Great Hackers" about Python programmers being better hackers than Java programmers. He basically says that since Python is not the kind of language that lands you a job like Java, those who learn it seek more than simply financial benefits, they seek better tools. Very interesting read."

Comments

A nice, short article!

[lpangelrob2]

A short, interesting read that makes sense and yet is something I'd never thought about. It'll give me extra incentive to pick up Python... but I sorta knew that I should work on being more than a Java / school-taught C++ person in the first place.

As has been implied, this should be broadened to all sorts of concepts... databases (PostGRE in addition to mySQL in addition to oracle), OSes (Windows nnnn in addition to UNIX in addition to Macs), etc. Heaven knows when I'll find time for being a better rounded programmer, but it should be a goal for all programming professionals. I'm sure this isn't the first time someone's given such advice.

Re:Why I like Python

[cmowire]

Ahh..

But then you should try Ruby, which is even more awesome than Python in many respects. ;)

Re:Python vs Java

[tb()ne]

The promise of "write-once-run-anywhere" was pretty much dead. Not that I was even going for portability - I just wanted it to run on Linux. And I wanted to do it without having to download Beans, Java DynamicManagement, Java Metadata, ad nauseum.

Didn't they change it to "write-once-debug-everywhere"?

Re:Java programmer's viewpoint

[RAMMS EIN]

``Also us, enterprise developers tend to work in environments that are much more conservative from the technology standpoint (banking, insurance, brokerage). As far as I'm concerned it's a big win for us that we got Cobol elbowed out with Java. Trying to push the language of the month at those executives will cause us more harm than good.''

And you know, I very much have the impression that Java is a language of the month.

First there were promises of write once, run anywhere. Alas, many problems have cropped up in this area, which I think is what killed Java applets and, largely, desktop apps.

Then there is Java on the server. I never really understood the advantage of Java on the server is. It can't be platform independence - one server is only one platform. Is it performance? I doubt it. Is Java easier to code in then other languages? Perhaps for some, but for me, it's one of the saltier languages. Is it the library support? Well, I would expect such support to exist for other languages, too, and if it didn't, they would be no worse than Java was at the beginning.

Another class of projects that uses Java is software that runs on mobile phones. However, at least on my phone, Java programs run so slow that I prefer to avoid them. Of course, portability is a consideration here, but then, the fact that there are often lists of supported devices and different versions for different phones is telling.

So what are the great features of Java? Garbage collection? LISP has had that for ages. Same code works mostly everywhere? Goes for basically any interpreted language, and it works for C source, too. Object oriented? Again, LISP has had it for ages.

Whether Python is better than Java is a completely seperate issue. I personally prefer it because of its syntax, but that is obviously not the only consideration.