gizbot

The arrogance burns. It burns.

Python 3.0 was derailed by arrogance that developers should commit to a one-way transition that would touch every function rather than accept that, in Python 3.0, 'x = u"Hello"' should have been a valid statement. It didn't help that it ran slower, added nothing, and broke tools.

Python 3.3 was the first release that had a prayer, but there are mistakes everywhere. For example, virtualenv was included but broke because pip was not. Libraries like ftfy are required because the encodings break. Explaining the oddities of scoping inside generator expressions creates tricky interview questions. And then, Python 3 didn't fix all the broken.

By broken, I mean actually broken. We know where its broken: lots of standard libraries like collections.namedtuple which has an argument to print a generated class. Strange cruft like calendar.weekheader() that only helps one developer's program. This code is in the standard library. Handy things like cleaning up Unicode, DSL support, local encodings, security restrictions. Those you add from other libraries.

Also, where's the love? The courage? I would love to see Python seriously consider dropping case and underscore sensitivity in order to speed up developers, an_item = anItem +1 would be a warning. I would like to see language translation support in the language, great packaging that just works, incorporation unit tests into the package system, reforming the dunder mess, anything! Instead I see the mediocrity by arrogance.

Just for fun, they moved the US Pycon conference to Canada. Only little people have troubles with international travel. Arrogance.

Short answer: go camp out at HackerDojo and talk to everyone you meet while you are here. Showing up in person was an odd move. Take the time to tour Stanford, the Computer History Museum, UC Berkeley. Go to SF meetups and knock on doors.

Strangly, this was the business model of cable companies for the longest time. They never turned a profit. When they expanded, they could use the increased income stream to go deeper into debt. The profits and extra capital went into more expansion. Eventually, they ran out of room to expand, and where are they now?

Someday, Amazon will need to face the brutal reality of profit.

It started in 2012, which we all know as the real beginning of the Internet.

This is an old argument I've had for years: the address bar should show unicode characters in a distinctive manner, such as with a different background color. A bright red background would draw the eye.

It's the slow move from the Operating System to the GPU code; most games find Windows as much a hinderance as a help. I wonder if MS will try to do something useful to woo game developers more towards the Windows platform?

DragonBox. It's a game of match and eliminate symbols according to some basic rules, e.g., remove the same from each side. Usually around level 12 is when you realize the rules are algebra.