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Dropbox Announces Their Own Open-Source Python

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  • #11
    First Facebook's HHVM and the php language fork Hack, now Dropbox and Pyston? This JIT stuff seems to be really trendy these days.

    The right thing to deduce is that scripting languages are evolving into the next level, so I don't think Python is dying, but in the contrary, it is growing.

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    • #12
      Originally posted by litfan View Post
      Python is dying. Its being destroyed on all fronts from Javascript/Dart to Go/Ruby. The devs just killed their own language with the 2.7 to 3.0 screw-up. Dropbox isn't even supporting 3.0 yet the devs continue down this dual language version path. It's a complete disaster.
      I can't speak on the web server front, but on the scientific computing side there is no open-source language remotely in the same ballpark (the only thing close to it is Matlab, and Matlab is the one dying there).

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      • #13
        Originally posted by litfan View Post
        Bullshit. Google's Go directly competes with python on the web server side. Javascript is directly competing with Python for server apps now too. Virtually every company I work with is switching away from Django to node.js and other options.

        You're the clueless one if you think Python has any chance int he next 5 years to remain relevant.
        I use python for a lot of small tools and batch scripts at work. We are a c++ shop, but use python for "scripty things" and build/content management. Neither go or js are hardly alternatives there. Not that I do any heavy lifting in python, but it is excellent in orchestrating the tools that do. Python is king at string management and "batteries included".

        There is software development being done outside of the web.

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        • #14
          Originally posted by TheBlackCat View Post
          I can't speak on the web server front, but on the scientific computing side there is no open-source language remotely in the same ballpark (the only thing close to it is Matlab, and Matlab is the one dying there).
          Astronomers love their IDL and matlab. Both "languages" with their libraries won't die any time soon, but since several years ago I have started seeing a lot more usage of python by students and scientists. The advantages of python are the huge community, vast libraries for pretty much everything, ease of use with c/cpp/fortran, and that it's free of cost. IDL costs something like $1500+ for personal licence and you're in deep trouble if you need to do anything close to general non-scientific programming.
          Last edited by Anarchy; 04 April 2014, 12:14 PM.

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          • #15
            Originally posted by TheBlackCat View Post
            I can't speak on the web server front, but on the scientific computing side there is no open-source language remotely in the same ballpark (the only thing close to it is Matlab, and Matlab is the one dying there).
            Take a look at MIT's Julia Language. I know Python and Matlab are the current kings on this land, but Julia is very promissing and VERY fast.

            Watch what unfolded at JuliaCon 2023 here. The latest developments, optimizations, and features happen right here, at JuliaCon.

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            • #16
              Originally posted by litfan View Post
              Bullshit. Google's Go directly competes with python on the web server side. Javascript is directly competing with Python for server apps now too. Virtually every company I work with is switching away from Django to node.js and other options.

              You're the clueless one if you think Python has any chance int he next 5 years to remain relevant.
              Python is used in a lot of projects for code generation and parsing (I use it for processing things like the Unicode Character Database). Mozilla use it for generating WebIDL bindings and part of their build/test system, WebKit/Blink are using it as part of their build system and several of their script-based tools. It is also used in projects using the scons build system, by the mercurial version control system, by many Ubuntu projects and more.

              On the web-side, dropbox and reddit are using a Python-based back-end.

              Just because there are many different options in different languages for generating websites does not mean that python is dying.

              According to http://readwrite.com/2012/06/05/5-wa...e-most-popular, Python ranked near the top in terms of the number of tagged questions on stack overflow and the number of projects on GitHub. Python hadn't changed position much from 2010 (http://readwrite.com/2010/12/10/rank...ming-languages), remaining in the upper corner. That is, statistically it showed no shift in position. The same applies for 2014 (http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2014/01/2...rankings-1-14/).

              For the GitHub statistics, counting projects created in 2013 (http://adambard.com/blog/top-github-...r-2013-so-far/) the rank 1-10 is JavaScript (22.41%), Ruby (18.57%), Java (13.37%), PHP (9.71%), Python (8.06%), C++ (6.65%), C (5.74%), Objective-C (3.08%), C# (2.73%) and Shell (2.42%). Note that these statistics are biased toward JavaScript and Ruby as GitHub is popular with web developers and the Ruby community.

              However, given those statistics, Python was 5th in 2013 and 6th in 2012, so actually moved up a place (as a result of C falling from 4th in 2012 to 7th in 2013). And, accoding to Ohloh monthly commit stats, Python is growing faster than Ruby (http://sogrady-media.redmonk.com/sog...e-rankings.jpg).

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              • #17
                Originally posted by litfan View Post
                Bullshit. Google's Go directly competes with python on the web server side. Javascript is directly competing with Python for server apps now too. Virtually every company I work with is switching away from Django to node.js and other options.

                You're the clueless one if you think Python has any chance int he next 5 years to remain relevant.
                I'm using both Python and Go and they do have vastly different strengths and design goals:

                1. Python: It's has ridiculously strong data structures and is a godsend for anything data analysis. Performance is not so great, but it's excellent to create quick prototypes. The standard library is very well made and designed to get things done fast. Python is a capable scripting language.

                2. Go: It's strength is in concurrency and speed. The data structures are a *lot* less flexible than Python being statically typed (ever tried to do calculations with mixed types like integer and float32/64.. prepare for a lot of type-conversions). It's shines if you want to build a web server quickly. Technically it's a systems programming language.

                Now Django and node.js are frameworks. They are nice, but not a panacea to anything. Raw Python is a very useful tool on it's own and is not going anywhere. Nothing even remotely as elegant for analyzing data is anywhere on the horizon. JavaScript is nice because it targets the browser which has a lot of benefits (no installation required), but needs a lot of catching up when it comes to accurately crunching data or maintaining big projects.

                So my point is, that I strongly disagree that Python is going anywhere or even getting significantly weaker. I don't see credible alternatives either.

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                • #18
                  Originally posted by litfan View Post
                  You're the clueless one if you think Python has any chance int he next 5 years to remain relevant.
                  I am a research scientist, and python is used ubiquitously for writing various scientific tools and programs as well as for interface applications between various machines and computers. Considering we are still using machines and computers from the days of early Unix, DOS, and OS/X, then I see all of our python interface machines seeing use for the next 30 years easy.

                  EDIT: before anyone gets annoyed and yells at me for our use of older machines, keep in mind that a good fluorimeter or spectrometer bought 30 years ago is still very useful today, but the software to run it only works on OS's of that time. Also, a new one costs $100,000 to $250,000.

                  Moral of the story, the software writers pick up a language, make a peice of software and then move on. But us "USERS" of thier software actually use this long forgotten works for decades at a time as long as its still useful.
                  Last edited by dh04000; 04 April 2014, 01:32 PM.

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                  • #19
                    Originally posted by schmidtbag View Post
                    You clearly have no idea how python works if you think any of those languages you mentioned are competing with it - you're comparing apples to oranges. Ruby is the only language that is similar in usage/purpose to python, and it is notably less popular. Also, the jump the 3.0 wasn't a bad idea. While breaking the compatibility was a little annoying, python supplies scripts to convert your code. I had a roughly 2500 line code that I converted from 2.7 to 3.3 by hand and it only took me an hour to do.

                    People don't switch to python 3.x because if they didn't write their code for it, there's a good chance it's going to be a pain to convert. As long as people are actively using 2.7, it isn't going to die, and if it works for them and is still being maintained, I don't really see that as a problem.
                    Please consider the option of NOT responding to trolls. Any kind of rational response will just add fuel to the fire. If you ignore them they will eventually get bored and go away.

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                    • #20
                      Originally posted by bison View Post
                      Please consider the option of NOT responding to trolls. Any kind of rational response will just add fuel to the fire. If you ignore them they will eventually get bored and go away.
                      To be honest, the OP to me seemed more genuinely clueless about what he was talking about, than trolling. But yeah... I was surprised too by the amount of replies he got!

                      Let me try too: C is dead, C is dead!!! Whoever uses C nowadays is stupid, PHP is sooooo much better!!!

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