Re:Open-sourcing MonkeyType – Let your Python code type-hint...
by nothrabannosir on Friday December 22, 2017 @05:15AM
(#15986425)
You can substitute Python for assembly, point at the Apollo mission and your argument still holds.
Rarely is a programming language chosen because it actually is the best tool for the job. Often, it’s whatever the people at the ground floor were most comfortable getting a prototype out the door with. Prototype working well? Fix this bug, add yonder feature. Before you know it you’ve built Facebook in PHP. “PHP is at the very least suitable for the development etc etc”, yes, that’s why Facebook invested all that effort in Hiphop VM.
There’s an irony in saying “there’s no reason not to use X” in reply to an article that is about a company spending a ton of effort working around a problem in X.
My point is: as a community, it’s our duty to learn from these mistakes. Let’s admit there is a problem, investigate, adapt, overcome. We can improve whatever will be the next Python so the next Instagram doesn’t have to go through this. But that won’t work if we keep saying “this is a nice problem to have, there’s nothing wrong.” It isn’t. There is. Look at the article.
Rarely is a programming language chosen because it actually is the best tool for the job. Often, it’s whatever the people at the ground floor were most comfortable getting a prototype out the door with. Prototype working well? Fix this bug, add yonder feature. Before you know it you’ve built Facebook in PHP. “PHP is at the very least suitable for the development etc etc”, yes, that’s why Facebook invested all that effort in Hiphop VM.
There’s an irony in saying “there’s no reason not to use X” in reply to an article that is about a company spending a ton of effort working around a problem in X.
My point is: as a community, it’s our duty to learn from these mistakes. Let’s admit there is a problem, investigate, adapt, overcome. We can improve whatever will be the next Python so the next Instagram doesn’t have to go through this. But that won’t work if we keep saying “this is a nice problem to have, there’s nothing wrong.” It isn’t. There is. Look at the article.