Re: Topic for discussion: Best & Worst features of Python

Dan Stromberg (strombrg@pleiades.acs.uci.edu)
5 Apr 1994 14:59:20 GMT

In article <CnJwC1.M58@murdoch.acc.virginia.edu>,
Steven D. Majewski <sdm7g@elvis.med.Virginia.EDU> wrote:
>
>Here's a topic I was saving up for the newsgroup, before launching:
>
>What do you thing are the 3 BEST or your favorite features of Python,
>and what are the three WORST or least favorite ?
>
>
>- Steve Majewski (804-982-0831) <sdm7g@Virginia.EDU>
>- UVA Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
>

Hmmm... favorite?

1) It's got most of the contemporary language features I want, plus a
smattering of other stuff that doesn't get in the way. :)
1a) Like it has a decent object system...
1b) and good fundamental types, to go with those strong composite types
2) Good types: It's type-safe, at least relative to something like C.
And the dynamic typing, which I'd thought would be a PAIN, has
turned out to be the blessing many said it would
3) There's a definite theoretical inclination, among it's primary
users. That means potentially Very good things for its code base,
if some pragmatists get in and harness some o' that theory. :)

Least favorite:

1) No information hiding, without weird games.
2) The default integer type is fixed-precision. I kinda wish the
default had been the slower-but-less-problematic-in-the-long-term
arbitrary precision, with extra syntax if you -want- to write code
that'll break on machines with 256bit wordsize.
3) h2py issues; converting system header files to python modules...
It's a pain, it's a necessary evil - and is in fact, far better than
having compiled-in gunk for each linguistic feature. But still...