Blog - /Tech
Dear Python,
I love some of your applications, but I hate debugging them. You enable programmers to write shitty and ill-advised objects and your advocates call it "magic". The magic is gone from our relationship — it's time to call it quits. Any Python program that I've ever wanted to extend or fix will now be replaced with something that is written in a saner language. Goodbye, Pyblosxom. Good times, MoinMoin. Good riddance, Bazaar — being a GNU project can't fix what ails you. Tailor, you are a horrible and poorly-documented siren of version control interoperability, and I have wasted enough time on you.
![[FSF Associate Member]](http://mwolson.org/static/logos/fsf-member.png)
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Posted by Paul R at Thu May 22 03:11:43 2008
Hi Michael,Although I do not use python for my tools, I'd really like to know more about this move from you. Do you plan to "replace" python with an other OO, imperative, dynamically typed language ? Or do you plan to quit this category of languages ? Please tell me more :)
AFA bazaar is concerned, you might want to have a look at Mercurial. Still written in python, but much shorter implementation, and faster tool.
Posted by piyo at Thu May 22 05:03:14 2008
I was expecting an earth-shattering kaboom!? ;-)I believe M. Olson uses git already, and perhaps stgit. And I bet you he replaced everything with Emacs Lisp. There's no way he's "riding the rails" or "doing it more than one way".
Posted by Stou at Thu May 22 08:15:50 2008
I am so glad someone feels the same way that I do. Python is brilliant for smallish apps, prototyping, useful utilities... I use it all the time... but after a certain mass, the project gets increasingly more difficult to debug and extend. It is easy to write Python with VI, no need for a complex IDE... but the converse is also true, you can't (or it's very hard to) have the really cool features of IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse JDT in an Python IDE. The autocompletion and auto-method creation, refactoring, whatever else. So maybe the startup cost of a C or Java project is higher, but at least with them maintenance and scalability is still possible, and I have to say easier, after the project becomes huge.Also, props for the poetic tone =)
Posted by Rasmus Lerdorf at Thu May 22 12:19:50 2008
I am so glad that you have seen the light! I too, decided to abandon PythonWare in favor of programs written in a saner, more rational language. I now use software only when it has been written in Perl or on HasCobol. HasCobol, as you know, is Rational Object Cobol extended with Haskell's Hindley-Milner type system, and Perl is, well, Perl.Welcome to the club! There are millions like us, and we will be silent no longer!
Posted by jb at Thu May 22 17:48:10 2008
You can write shitty code and implement bad designs in any language. Trouble scaling and debugging a Python or other dynamic language project has far more to do with design, factoring, and how good you and the other developers are than it does choice of language or type system. Python's got its warts, sure, but the symptoms mentioned here don't imply a diagnosis of bad language choice.$0.02, IMHO.
jb
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