Interestingly, the author classifies python as a brown language, yet it's on the top 15 of most loved programming languages.
Now, maybe it's because for a lot of people, it's a green language since it only became that popular in the last 10 years despite being an old one (1991).
But for me it's definitely a brown language, as I've been using it since 2.4 (we are at 3.9). And I must say, reading a decade old Python code bases, even with the 2=>3 transition in the middle, is still very easy.
I went back to a project I wrote 10 years ago (first commit 2011), and the code is clear. I can make changes to it with no problem at all. And it's not even a small project, it's a streaming website that still serves half a million users a day using an old Django.
Today I'm working for a client on a FastApi project. It uses all the current modern Python gimmicks, async, typing and f-string and so on. I could get into the code base in less than a day, and make my first commit.
I know Python has the reputation to not scale, not be good for big projects or big teams, but It's certainly not have been my experience.
The upcoming Python 3.10 has been controversial because it introduce some weird choices for pattern matching. But it's the tree hiding the forest:
- it's a sign the language is still actively evolving and will not become obsolete. Legacy design decision will always make adding new features an exercise in compromises.
- 3.10 also have been focusing on not-s-sexy but oh-so-important things like improving the error messages (I'm actually very excited about this, I've followed it and it's very well done)
So I'm pretty confident it's going to stay a brown, but nice language to work with.
Not that's it perfect, the more I use other languages, the more I can see the limits of Python. But I expect it to still be a solid choice for new projects for a long time.
Now, maybe it's because for a lot of people, it's a green language since it only became that popular in the last 10 years despite being an old one (1991).
But for me it's definitely a brown language, as I've been using it since 2.4 (we are at 3.9). And I must say, reading a decade old Python code bases, even with the 2=>3 transition in the middle, is still very easy.
I went back to a project I wrote 10 years ago (first commit 2011), and the code is clear. I can make changes to it with no problem at all. And it's not even a small project, it's a streaming website that still serves half a million users a day using an old Django.
Today I'm working for a client on a FastApi project. It uses all the current modern Python gimmicks, async, typing and f-string and so on. I could get into the code base in less than a day, and make my first commit.
I know Python has the reputation to not scale, not be good for big projects or big teams, but It's certainly not have been my experience.
The upcoming Python 3.10 has been controversial because it introduce some weird choices for pattern matching. But it's the tree hiding the forest:
- it's a sign the language is still actively evolving and will not become obsolete. Legacy design decision will always make adding new features an exercise in compromises.
- 3.10 also have been focusing on not-s-sexy but oh-so-important things like improving the error messages (I'm actually very excited about this, I've followed it and it's very well done)
So I'm pretty confident it's going to stay a brown, but nice language to work with.
Not that's it perfect, the more I use other languages, the more I can see the limits of Python. But I expect it to still be a solid choice for new projects for a long time.