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by norkakn 5230 days ago
I used to work on an old perl code base that was written by well meaning new programmers. I know work on an old python code base written by well meaning new programmers.

Both projects suck equally. The python project is much newer (~4 years instead of 12), but the smell is about the same. The problem with new programmers isn't that they pick the wrong object creation patterns, but that they reinvent the wheel and write long stupid functions with horrible nested if/else statements. A former google employee worked on one of the projects, and wrote her own python to json function.

I like python, and I like perl, but the python culture sucks. It has this weird superiority complex where it rejects any external ideas. If I am talking to perl people, and I mention some kick ass python feature that I miss, I either get information as to how it can be done in perl, or interest into why I like it. Around python people, I generally get something like, "well, none of us know perl. Have you tried doing it the python way?"

Moose is awesome, perlbrew is awesome, perl's module culture is awesome. The module culture is the one that annoys me most often. Python programmers don't write as good of tests, or nearly as good of documentation. We still have to run a lot of python 2.4, and a lot of modules claim 2.4 support and then use 2.6+ syntax.

I like python, I think it is a much better matlab, but a lot of its syntax is unintuitive and stupid, and there are some serious cultural issues. Anyone who thinks that it is perfect, or better than another language in every way is holding it back.