[codexon]

There were plenty of other languages competing with python for the same niche such as perl, ruby, js, php etc... Python is superior to all of those just for syntax alone, it is easier and cleaner to both read and write.

[eru]

That might be true, but it seems to generally fall under the category of 'relevant 15+ years ago', doesn't it?

[rybar]

How do you qualify relevancy? Your own personal bubble and bias? Adoption and usage?

Pull requests and stars on github? That might be a start.

https://madnight.github.io/githut/#/pull_requests/2022/4 https://madnight.github.io/githut/#/stars/2022/4

Though you may say but but alltheprivaterepos! Then I challenge you to back up what you mean by relevance and prove python is a category of relevant 15+ years ago.

[codexon]

I'm arguing against the point that it clearly did have the easiest syntax compared to the competition back then and not because Google was using it.

Even if it doesn't have the best syntax now (which I doubt), the tooling and libraries make it a better choice over any language that have an edge over python syntax.

[eru]

> I'm arguing against the point that it clearly did have the easiest syntax compared to the competition back then and not because Google was using it.

Maybe, not sure? My point was that both the syntax and Google using it was more relevant 15 years ago than now.

(I don't have much of an opinion on the 15+ years ago thing.)

[codexon]

I don't see any reason for it to be less true now.

Is python syntax worse than any brand new languages like rust or go? Absolutely not. It's still better.

Did Google stop using it? I don't think so, but I also don't think people picked it just because Google did.

[eru]

Python's syntax is ok.

Btw, I wish they would take some inspiration from Haskell's syntax.

Haskell also has significant whitespace, but its defined as syntactic sugar for a more traditionally syntax with curly braces and semicolons.

Approximately no-one uses that curly-brace syntax, but it's good for two things:

- silences the naysayers

- more importantly: allows you to copy-paste code even into forms that mess up your indentation.

[joquarky]

In a few years, none of this is going to matter anyway since it is likely we will be able to automatically translate everything cheaply.

[ElFitz]

> Python is superior to all of those just for syntax alone, it is easier and cleaner to both read and write.

Do you have any argument to support this, aside from personal bias?

[codexon]

I can make some arguments but it all boils down to personal bias and anecdotes.

The forced use of spacing to delineate blocks means you will never see a bunch of brackets eating up screen space and the common error where someone adds another line to an if statement but doesn't add braces.

Semicolons not being conventional means less screen noise and less code golf 1 liners.

The focus on imperative vs functional means you rarely ever see something like this a(b(c(d(e(f(g))))

PHP suffers greatly from poorly named standard functions on top of all of that.

Don't get me started on Ruby metaprogramming.

These are just the things I could think of off the top of my head. I do not want to spend my afternoon on this. This is just my experience looking at code for over 20 years, you either believe it or you don't. There's no scientific studies to prove that 1 syntax feature is superior.

I highly doubt that everyone chose python just because Google did. Python was a giant step in syntax compared to the competition back then, and now even if there is a new language out there right now that has a better syntax, it's not going to be better by much, and it is not going to have the tooling, libraries, or the community.

[ElFitz]

Having not been around when Python gained in popularity, and having mostly been using Node.js and Swift, this is actually quite interesting.

Thanks!