Would that change if I were Dutch?
My impression is also that more people use pip now particularly with its integration with virtualenv.
I can't imagine not developing with pip and virtualenv now.
It's quite clear that the author at least knows that.
Also, there is a general concensus that pep 0008 and the zen of python are not the only definition of pythonic.
I'm always amused when I read this. All of it is straightforward advice and good when applied sanely, of course. But... the whole thing just drips with an insecurity complex over perl. Where Larry & Co. were shocking the world with the cacophany of TMTOWTDI and their Laziness, Impatience and Hubris, the python people just look... scared of all that stuff.
So they have this meek list instead. There's sanity here, but no poetry. I think this explains my reaction to python every time I'm forced to use or maintain it -- there's no fun in the language, just proscription. Programming should be fun, right?
JAPH to Pythonista convert here. I think it definitely is a reaction to Perl, but the "insecurity complex" phrasing has its own insecurity complex peeking out. The Zen dates from 2004, when the writing was on the wall for Perl. (That writing on the wall was in Ruby, Python, and PHP.) Very little to feel insecure about by then.
Also, beauty and simplicity are hardly meek values, but I understand the subjectivity. To each his own.
for those without a python interpreter handy:
>>> import this The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters
Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than right now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.