<p>“Um, Do you even know what Python is? I suggest you take a deep and hard look at what python is made up of. If you still need to ask the questions, above let me know.”
- Yes, I know what Python is. No need to “take a deep look” into it. Language features have pros and cons, in general. And Python does not necessarily have all the language features you suggest.</p>
<p>“What makes you say that? possibly if you understood what python actually is you would have not made that claim. A OS does not need to be written in C, contrary to what most CS students are taught in their incredibly basic OS class.”
- I remain skeptical. I don’t want to get into reasons, but trust me, there are reasons. In any event, regardless of whether it is technically possible or not (maybe it is?), Python is not well-suited - from a language features point of view - to write an OS in. You can write an OS in a <em>lot</em> of languages. It doesn’t make those languages “serious contenders”.</p>
<p>“you can write python as tight as C and as loose as ruby, its your choice. Another feature which makes it great.”
- The syntax is ugly to me. That’s not to say C/C++/Java syntax is beautiful… if you ask me, the nicest syntax ever was Ada-like. That’s beside the point. Python just looks bad to me. Not having to declare variables leaves another bad taste in my mouth. These are fundamentally the differences between programming and scripting languages… however, I find even the syntax of Prolog and Lisp/Scheme to be much more elegant than that of Python. Lisp is actually a beautiful language, in particular.</p>
<p>“Its not a prerequisite, but any good programmer would love to use and would have respect for python. Any good programmer is eclectic and simply uses the best tool for the job. Python would be a amazing language to learn with, as would ruby. It allows very clear code to be written, where the programmer spend much more time on the code vs the logic and syntax. The programmer in the end writes a program which is about a 3rd the size of a C based syntax language(which including java). Id love to hear those reasons.”
- Every programming language has its strong points, doesn’t mean a good programmer has to like them all.</p>
<p>"Somebody should already have pretty advanced skills in algorithmic thought if they have taken a HS level class in mathematics. You can write all the psudocode you want, but you will never become a better programmer by it. You need to program to become a better programmer. No way around it. The same is true with math and math based science. Many CS students come out of school thinking they are amazing programmers, truth be told they are usually the worst of the worst and the only reason they get hired is because they have potential. It takes a lot of work to become a good programmer, a lot of work. A lot more than a 4 year cs degree can provide. "
- Yeah, disagree. Programming isn’t (read: shouldn’t) be about monkey-programming, it should be about figuring out how to solve problems. I think we are doing students a great disservice by making programming a “skill” when it should be one of the purest intellectual activities there is, close to (if not the same as) mathematics. Typing the code onto a computer… that is a skill, and I don’t think that should be emphasized (I think there’s a general move away from that in academic circles, anyway).</p>
<p>"You may not like python, you may not think its a good general language and the way you talk about it you seem to not understand its fundamentals, but is is the 6th most popular language in the world now and to say its not important and to ignore its benefits is foolish. "
- I don’t like Python, but I accept that others do and that’s alright. It’s not my favorite language, but I make do. I like to think I understand its “fundamentals”. Popularity of a language does not really mean it is a good language… just that a lot of people like it. Bandwagon fallacy.</p>
<p>"But if you like we can agree to disagree. "
- I would <em>love</em> that.</p>