In a recent
Talk
I said something that upset a lot of people: that you could get smarter programmers to work on a Python project than you could to work on a Java project.I did not mean by this that Java programmers are dumb I meant that Python programmers. .. are smart It's a lot of work to learn a new programming language and people do not learn Python because it will get them a job; they learn it because they genuinely like to program and are not satisfied with the languages they already know .Which makes them exactly the kind of programmers companies should want to hire Hence what, for lack of a better name, I'll call the Python paradox:. if a company chooses to write its software in a comparatively esoteric language, they'll be able to hire better programmers, because they'll attract only those who cared enough to learn it And for programmers the paradox is even more pronounced:. the language to learn, if you want to get a good job, is a language that people Don't Learn Merely to Get a Job.only A Few Co Mpanies Have Been Smart Enough To Realize this so far. But there is a kind of selection going on here: t on '
re exactly the companies programmers would most like to work for. Google, for example. When they advertise Java programming jobs, they also want Python experience.A friend of mine who knows nearly all the widely used languages uses Python for most of his projects. . He says the main reason is that he likes the way source code looks that may seem a frivolous reason to choose one language over another But it is not so frivolous as it sounds:. when you program, you spend far more time reading code than writing it. You push blobs of source code around the way a sculptor does blobs of clay. So a language that makes source code ugly is maddening to an exacting programmer, as clay full of lumps would be to a sculptor.At the mention of ugly source code, people will of course think of Perl. But the superficial ugliness of Perl is not the sort I mean. Real ugliness is not harsh-looking syntax, but having to build programs out of the wrong concepts. Perl may look like a cartoon Character SWearing, But there area
WHERE IT SURPASES PYTHON CONCEPTUALLY.SO FAR, Anyway. Both Languages Are ORSE
Moving
Targets. But The Share, Along with Ruby (AND iCON, AND JOY, AND J, AND LISP, AND SMALLTALK) The fact this.'re created by, and used by The ones who do it.
