Evan Martin (evan) wrote in evan_tech,
Evan Martin
evan
evan_tech

python 2.5

The language extensions in Python 2.5 are almost uniformly nonsensical to me: Conditional expressions, but with gratuitously weird syntax; partial application, where even their example of why you'd want this could've been written more clearly with lambda (open_func = lambda: self.open_item(item_path)); a bunch more attempts at Ruby parity, but some using weird syntax extensions instead of something more general. I think Python had a lot of interesting things going for it originally, and used to be quite the enthusiast, but as I learned more about it I grew to like it less and less.

To be fair, I don't much like where I've seen Ruby headed, either: people seem intent on twisting cute hacks (lots of them use eval on strings generated by code, for crying out loud) around what the language provides, and the last time I browsed the proposed language extensions for the next major Ruby release (which I can't find right now) I was mostly disappointed.

Grumble, grumble.
Tags: grumpy, programming languages, python
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  • blog moved

    As described elsewhere, I've quit LiveJournal. If you're interested in my continuing posts, you should look at one of these (each contains feed…

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    They published a paper on Dremel, my favorite previously-unpublished tool from the Google toolchest. Greg Linden discusses it: "[...] it is capable…

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