[wpietri]

> I'd argue that better relative ergonomics had diddly squat effect on Python's current position.

I'd agree with that. I've done a lot of work in Python and Ruby. I mostly do Python these days. I think Ruby's ergonomics were better, especially for novices. (E.g., if you want to know what methods you can call on an object, in Ruby you can just look at the object, but in Python there are a whole zoo of global functions you're supposed to know about. [1]) But I think ergonomics just don't matter much when compared with more practical considerations like availability of libraries or number of developers available to hire.

[1] https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html