I was a java developer one year ago ,before i moved to python i realy liked it at the beggining, but i got very disapointed lately since my previus two python proyects where relatively big,and python didnt feel well suited for the task.
The reasons are mainly due to the standard library,the language performance was aceptable, but the library, in my opinion has several grave issues:
-No naming convention. The speech of "it fits in my head" is no longer valid when i use a lot of functionality,modules,classes in a large proyect.
For example if i remember a function i want ie:get attribute, i dont remember if the module implementer coded it as getAttribute,GetAttribute,get_attribute, then i have to go and check the doc, every time,which is a waste of time.
I believe this is a rather ill-suited example. People will react.
-library Organization,we have modules that can have 20 classes(I imagine that is because of the commodity of having all in one file)
I challenge you to comparative statistics with Java.
which makes reading the doc horribly painfull and is very hard to find the stuff coupled with the "pool" of modules that is the python installation directory,all throwed away at the installation directory without a categorization.
Well, for the soothing it can provide, I often feel nostalgic of the python documentation when I use javadoc.
-Is python library half object oriented? half functional oriented? I can
understand that python allows some functional programing components when
they are necesary,but there are libraries that totaly ignore object
orientation which makes them problematic to use.for example,Whats with the
os.path module and files? why do i have to say os.path.getfilesize(f.name)
all the time? why cant i say f.size? Why does urlparse returns a tuple of 7
items instead of an URL object? why there isnt an URL object? and so on..
I havent figured out a way to overcome those factors,the delaying and lost of focus that is having to check the docs all the time,every 5 seconds and having to make object oriented wrapers for several libraries or having to go and read the source code to know what the heck a function returns or what are its arguments makes coding unpleasant an very slow , i often have 15 pydocs windows open at the same time. What should i do?
First, you should believe the newsgroup when you get told that reading the source code "to know what the heck a function returns" is a not a need the python documentation leaves most pythoneers with.
-Realying on ides is imposible due to python dinamic nature,very litle(next to nothing) assistance can be espected from them.
-Memorazing all the function names,parameters,return values,conventions of the modules i use doesnt look like a good solution.
Join it with poor and outdated documention and we have a very unpleasant standard library.
You would be much closer to the mark, imho, by admitting that the main issue with "knowing a programming language" is knowing its standard library while feeling at home with the documentation thereof; *and* then admitting that changing languages generally implies the unpleasant experience of loosing touch with the content and style of one's beloved standard library and docs.
In the other hand, with the recent changes in java 5 i can pythonize java,And take advantage of a well designed library that coupled with the "apache commons" libraries has no match,not even .Net.
for example with the static import feature i can say:
import static mylib.Toolbox.print; import static mylib.Console.run; // or import static mylib.Toolbox.*;
class C{ public void func(){ print("hello world"); // instead of System.out.println("hello world"); print(run("ls /tmp")); } }
Well you should provide the complete python equivalent, and I anticipate that you will be hard pressed to find someone on clp who will share your feeling that this java version is evidently better.
Regards. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
