Comment by throwaway81523 2 days ago
Python has always been unashamedly imperative, with some functional features entering by slipping through the cracks. The pattern matching thing seemed ok to me when I tried it, but I haven't used it except briefly, since I'm still mostly on Python 3.9. Interestingly, Python has been losing users to Rust. I don't entirely understand that, other than everyone saying how Rust's tooling is so much better.
> For tooling shipped to client environments, I now tend to steer clear of it.
A guy on r/WritingWithAI is building a new writing assistant tool using python and pyQt. He is not a SE by trade. Even so, the installation instructions are:
- Install Python from the Windows app store
- Windows + R -> cmd -> pip install ...
- Then run python main.py
This is fine for technical people. Not regular folks.
For most people, these incantations to be typed as-is in a black window mean nothing and it is a terrible way of delivering a piece of software to the end-user.
As someone that always kept a foot on C++ land, dispite mostly working on managed languages, I would that by C++17 (moreso now in C++23), dispite all its quirks and warts, C++ has become good enough that I can write Python like code with it.
Maybe it is only a thing to those of us already damaged with C++, and with enough years experience using it, but there are still plenty of such folks around to matter, specially to GPU vendors, and compiler writers.
I liked "Effective Modern C++" although it is somewhat out of date by now. Stroustrup's recent article "21st century C++" https://cacm.acm.org/blogcacm/21st-century-c/ gives an overview (but not details) of more recent changes. There are also the C++ core guidelines though maybe those are also out of date? https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines
I've been looking at Rust and it's a big improvement over C, but it still strikes me as a work in progress, and its attitude is less paranoid than that of Ada. I'd at least like to see options to crank up the paranoia level. Maybe Ada itself will keep adapting too. Ada is clunky, but it is way more mature than Rust.
kind-a summary: 21st century c++ (still by Bjarne Stroustrup)
I'm largely still a Python user, but when I've used it, rust overall gross way more thoughtfully and consistently designed— both in the core language features and in the stdlib.
Python's thirty years of evolution really shows at this point.
> Python has been losing users to Rust. I don't entirely understand that, other than everyone saying how Rust's tooling is so much better.
Not to rust, but to Go and C++ for myself. The biggest motivating factor is deployment ease. It is so difficult to offer a nice client install process when large virtual environments are involved. Static executables solve so many painpoints for me in this arena. Rust would probably shine here as well.
If its for some internal bespoke process, I do enjoy using Python. For tooling shipped to client environments, I now tend to steer clear of it.