If python was treating it as a text value then int("009") is 9 as you would expect. Even if it wasn't you could do lstrip("0") to remove leading zeroes before converting to an integer.
From reading the post it sounds like the faults lies more with the developers inability to use python than pythons inabilities.
Also, I know python has functional aspects, but is it really classified as a functional language now?
Also - even if it was python fault, and if python was a functional language, error described here would be a problem of dynamic typing, not of functional-ness of a language.
But the article still get's it wrong it has nothing to do with functional vs OO vs procedural and everything to do with type casting. Given the level of confusion on the authors part I suspect this has more to do with mastery of the tools at the authors disposal than the constructs of a languadge.
From reading the post it sounds like the faults lies more with the developers inability to use python than pythons inabilities.
Also, I know python has functional aspects, but is it really classified as a functional language now?