Python is the most popular programming language and beloved by many. However I can’t understand why (this is still the case in 2024).
Here are my main gripes with it:
- It is slow, performance intensive tasks have to be offloaded to other languages, which makes it complicated to analyse. Moreover I wonder how many kwH could have been saved if programms were written in more performant languages. (and there are better alternatives out there)
- The missing type system makes it easy to make errors, and the missing compiler makes it hard to catch them
- It has no linear algebra built in, so you always have to convert things to numpy arrays, which is quite annoying
- Managing virtual environments and pip packages feels overly complicated
I guess much comes down to personal, but I just can’t understand the love for python.
I’m not a huge python fan but I’m pretty confused about point 3. What alternative languages have decent linear algebra support built in?
Julia, R, Matlab, Mathematica and Fortran.
Sounds like you’re just using the wrong tool for the job, then.
It’s like you’re trying to drive a screw in with a hammer.
No I mean, Python is definitely the most used language in scientific computing, but yeah, I would use something else if I could.
Why would it be better or important in any way to have that be a “language feature” instead of a library?
If it can be a library, it’s obviously not something that needs to be a part of the language. Most uses have absolutely no need for linear algebra. Why drag on useless baggage and bloat?
Yeah that point was not entirely accurate. What I meant was, that a np.array and a list don’t work together. Coming from julia and matlab it just does not make sense to me, why I can’t use a function written for a list for a np.array even if they basically represent the exaxt same thing.
Julia for example hast linalg as a module but functions work on lists with no problem.
Not only can you sometimes drive a normal wood screw with a hammer, they also make hammer drive screws. And nails that screw…
Also, every tool is also a hammer.
(Sorry. I had to pick a little bit of fun at that analogy.)