The Holy Grail

As of today, I do not think there is a better general purpose language in existence than Python. With few exceptions, it just feels “right”, and without fail writing it makes me happy. Here’s just a couple of my favorite features:

Clean syntax

Python eschews block delimiters in favor of strict indentation rules, which both keeps the code more readable, and forces good formatting. It also requires a minimum of special characters, enhancing readability even further. I work with Perl extensively in my day job, and just look at how much grosser it looks than the equivalent Python:

if ($enemy == 'klingon') {
   firePhasers();
}
else {
   openHailingFrequencies();
}

if enemy == 'klingon':
    firePhasers()
else:
    openHailingFrequencies()

Implementational flexibility

I’m not sure that’s actually a word, but what I mean to say is that Python is a solid choice no matter the design approach you want to take. Writing a simple procedural script? Python does that. Taking an object-oriented approach? Python does that too. Want to dabble with a functional style? Oh yeah, Python’s got your back.

While the purists might say Python isn’t the ideal choice for any of those scenarios, I say it’s probably good enough, and in the real world I’d rather be an expert in one language than a novice in three.

Extensive PACKAGE library

I’m continually amazed at how much functionality is included in Python’s standard library. It makes writing code so much quicker. And if a feature isn’t in a default package, there is a massive ecosystem of third party libraries.

In my next couple of posts I’ll share a few of my favorite of these packages.

To Be Fair

Python isn’t perfect, and there are a couple things I don’t care for. For example, take its ternary syntax:

action = 'punch' if captain == 'Kirk' else 'talk'

I’m generally a fan of ternary operators because of their concision (which is a word I just learned), but the ordering of this construction feels awkward. See, I can be unbiased!