I feel proponents of any programming language put a lot of spin around what isolated aspects it is good for, but fail to illustrate what a programmer in even one target domain gains from using it.

Are there programming language implementations unlike what is described above, that you feel back up their marketing?

  • flatbield@beehaw.org
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    4 days ago

    Python is slow often 1% of the speed of a fully parallelized and vectorized C app compiled specifically for your architecture. There are ways to improve speed like libraries, PyPy, numba, etc of course but often theٌse are application specific and do not always give the performance you might think. I love Python, but for speed it is not the best.

    • Life is Tetris@leminal.spaceOP
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      4 days ago

      Interesting. What is useful in Python other than the effort put into the bindings to fast libraries? I thought alternatives like Go, Julia and Ruby are appreciated over Python for programming utility.

      • flatbield@beehaw.org
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        3 days ago

        You generally do no write Python for speed though generally the apeed is good enough. You write it for minimal effort of coding plus libraries. Why do people use Matlab ҄and R, same.

        • Life is Tetris@leminal.spaceOP
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          2 days ago

          Maybe you are replying to the other comments, but what I am getting is Python is good glue and doesn’t get in the way. That is fine, but not getting in the way is little help with any of the programming.

          • flatbield@beehaw.org
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            2 days ago

            Python as glue is absolutely a use. The big advantage of Python is that it also has a broad range of use and expands what a single developer can do in cases where time and cost of development is more important then code efficiencey and long term support. Basically quick often throwaway apps to get something done.

            Edit: Python is a good alternative to say tcl, perl, R, matlab, VB, etc.

            • Life is Tetris@leminal.spaceOP
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              2 days ago

              broad range of use, alternative to Perl, R, etc.

              Of course. Its in the same category as Ruby and Lua. Hence the question on “getting out of the way”, which Lua is much better at and which Ruby surpasses by also making programming easier. But Python was first at surpassing even Perl at growing library bindings.