| ▲ | nahfrtho a day ago | |
> Can't use Python because it's too slow? Show a proof of concept that is fast. Python is slow though, and for many use cases it won't work. For example, say somebody wanted to build a performant systems type software like version control. You're not really going to do that in Python. Something like that would even be slow in much "faster" Node.js. Some stuff you can't really use dynamic langauges for, if you want it to be performant. Low-level stuff usually, of course. To your point, you could showcase how Python might call out to other languages like Rust, and show why it's convenient to keep some stuff in Python. | ||
| ▲ | genxy 15 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | |
Lol, Mercurial is written in Python (and now some Rust). Most of the time, when someone raises a hypothetical performance criticism, it is either to further their pet language or as a cheap shot to shoot something down. | ||
| ▲ | bawolff a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
> Python is slow though, and for many use cases it won't work. This is actually the only criticism from the article i think is invalid. Very little in the business world is so performance sensitive that language (as oppossed to algorithms used) make a difference. If it does make a difference, python is still probably fine for the prototype. If its still an issue, just use another language. You are at the beginning of the project, its trivial at this stage to switch languages. All the other criticisms i consider very valid. The language choice example is a stupid one. | ||
| ▲ | moregrist a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
> For example, say somebody wanted to build a performant systems type software like version control. You're not really going to do that in Python. Actually, bazaar [0] (now breezy [1]) was a distributed version control system written in Python. It gained some non-Python bits over time, but iirc it was originally all Python. As a (spiritual) successor to Tom Lord’s Arch [2] it was the second DVCS I used and, while slower than git, was performant enough for my needs at the time I used it. Most distributed version control is IO bound, and Python isn’t terrible at that. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Bazaar | ||
| ▲ | sfink a day ago | parent | prev [-] | |
Mercurial was written entirely in Python for quite a while. But more to the point, I doubt there are many ideas for which the choice of implementation language is core to the idea. Maybe that's how it was presented, but that's usually because you need a concrete realization of an idea in order for people to even get what you're talking about. | ||