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One of the most interesting distinctions that seems to set Python fanatics apart from zealots of other programming languages I've met is the way they think about other languages. Pythonistas just seem less aggressive and mean.
I code Python for fun, as a hobby. I find simple pleasure in writing a script in Python and making it do what I expected. Sure, I look for ways I can use it in the office, which is a source of lots of interesting challenges. But it's all good, clean fun to me.
And still, nearly every program I write is met with indignance, hostility, and disdain by coders of other languages. The problem isn't that Python is held in pitifully low esteem by the programming community, but that each of these these other coders seems convinced that his own favorite language is the only viable option for programming. They are as hostile to each other as they are to us!
Perl hackers balk at my attempts to code in a language other than Perl. I know some PHP addicts who appear determined to ride me into submission. Some Java coders sneer at code that isn't Java. C++ programmers sometimes seem to think the rest of us are blithering idiots and are only allowed to live so that there are end users to sqeeze Porche payments out of. The list continues, but why belabor the point?
But I frequently see Python gurus extol the virtues of all these other languages and quite a few others. Most Python programmers I encounter seem content to code in whichever language suits their current need or desire, and can tell you why they choose which ones in which situations.
I wonder about this, how it came to be and whether anything can be done about it. For a while I suspected that there was just something about using curly braces for indentation that made people hostile over time, which makes sense to me whenever I spend much time reading these other people's code. But then I recall that the usually-friendly Python community speaks well of these other languages from experience, so many gentle Pythonistas have clearly been exposed to any evils built into the other languages.
But if there's nothing particularly evil about the other languages, then wherein lies the difference? I'm interested in hearing some opinions on this, because I have yet to figure it out. There is the legend of Guido's time machine, which is used to explain Guido van Rossum's eerie tendency to answer complaints about Python by pointing out that the complaint has already been fixed in the current sources. It's rumored that Guido, upon hearing worthy complaints, travels back in time to fix the problem in advance.
Perhaps some wise future Guido will travel back to the origin of the language and apply some subliminal *Why can't we be friends?* message in the way Python handles whitespace. Or maybe coding in a language named after comedy troupe Monty Python reminds us not to take ourselves so seriously. I just don't know why, but the Python community really does seem like a nicer bunch of people.
So code in any language you like, but remember.... Nobody expects a Spanish Inquisition.
by Rob Andrews