Humor: The Evolution of a Programmer

[Price, Erik]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Sconce [mailto:sconce at in-spec-inc.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 12:09 PM
> To: discuss at gnhlug.org
> Subject: Re: Humor: The Evolution of a Programmer
> 
> 
> Price, Erik writes:
> 
> >  
> > 
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Bill Sconce [mailto:sconce at in-spec-inc.com]
> >> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 10:20 AM
> >> To: discuss at gnhlug.org
> >> Subject: Re: Humor: The Evolution of a Programmer 
> >> 
> >  
> > 
> >> Extra credit, what will the following do (if you've just
> >> stepped through the statements above)?  
> >> 
> >> >>> print somefile
> > 
> > I may be mistaken, but doesn't it print the address of the
> > object "somefile"?
>  
> 
> Well, er, yes.  And something else, which was the actual
> point....  pretty much unrelated...  no big deal.
> 
> However, it may be worth mentioning that it's The Python Way
> to, whenever possible, not guess, but to Just Try It.  Much
> of the language's design is directed at making this not only
> possible, but easy. 
> 
> It is OFTEN easier in Python to try it than to guess.
> (Also, easier to try it than to RTFM...  :) 

Well, that would have been cheating.  Here's what it really gives:

>>> fh = open(".bashrc")
>>> fh
<open file '.bashrc', mode 'r' at 0x8165d90>

> At least that's how _I_ develop Python programs.  85% trying
> things, 75% of which get thrown away, all of which takes
> 15% of the time "real coding" would have taken, and yielding
> 5% of the errors I'd get in other languages.  95% of the errors
> get thrown away with the 75% of the things tried. 

The two things I like best about Python are its ease of use in OO 
design and implementation (this is one place where I wouldn't go 
near Perl) and its interactive interpreter.  It is just as you say, 
a great way to shave time off development, since you can literally 
interact with your program in realtime.

I really like it, I just wish there was a truly portable graphics 
library (as in, "installed by default on all systems").  I have 
been meaning to try out Jython, for that matter....


Erik