Python is the duct tape of programming languages.
Never the best tool if you have strict performance requirements, but so damn versatile it will never go away.
Cython does need better docs though, the steep learning curve means it is under-utilized.
Never the best tool if you have strict performance requirements, but so damn versatile it will never go away.
Cython does need better docs though, the steep learning curve means it is under-utilized.
For some that glue is Forth. :D
> A guy named Jean-Paul Wippler is considering using Forth as a super glue language to bind Python Perl and Tcl together in a project called Minotaur (http://www.equi4.com/minotaur/minotaur.html).
> Forth is an ideal intermediary language, precisely because it's so agile. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been chosen for OpenFirmware, which when you think about it, is a Forth system that must interface to a potentially wide variety of programming language environments.
Is this wishful thinking?
Perl is extinct in comparison. It's not been used for any projects anywhere for a long long time.
Which is a good example that the decrease in use can go a lot faster than you think. Perl was widely used in 2000, and thought to be on par with Python. Similarly Visual Basic which nobody seems to remember any more.
Also, COBOL is simply used because it is uneconomical to rewrite those old programs, not because it is a good language to write new stuff in. But the heavy dependency of Python programs on libraries hosted across the web means that obsolescence can happen a lot faster today; a COBOL program is almost totally self-contained in comparison.
I worked at the largest US bank and had the unfortunate task to decommission the last Perl software. Doing a lot of archeology there was never much of Perl really, some short scripts here and there. One or two flagship applications in the early 2000 but they were rewritten long ago.
Looking at our python codebase however, that's ten of millions of lines of code covering all types of applications and all aspects of the business. It will still be there 30 years later.
The dependency to the interpreter and external libraries is a problem indeed. They're constantly shifting or getting abandoned under your feet. I wonder how this will be managed eventually.
In the meantime perl11.org went down.
Because I don't need it to be hermetically-sealed perfection, I just need my python code to spit out a good result when I throw it at a problem; nevermind that it took a few seconds to spin up or needs more memory than a perfectly crafted C program.
And if Google, Amazon, NASA, etc (all places where Python is used heavily), are not high enough for you, what exactly are your standards?
Not dog shit. Just because you can make money slinging dog shit doesn’t make it good