this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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Unpopular Opinion

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Python is the most popular programming language and beloved by many. However I can't understand why (this is still the case in 2024).

Here are my main gripes with it:

  • It is slow, performance intensive tasks have to be offloaded to other languages, which makes it complicated to analyse. Moreover I wonder how many kwH could have been saved if programms were written in more performant languages. (and there are better alternatives out there)
  • The missing type system makes it easy to make errors, and the missing compiler makes it hard to catch them
  • It has no linear algebra built in, so you always have to convert things to numpy arrays, which is quite annoying
  • Managing virtual environments and pip packages feels overly complicated

I guess much comes down to personal, but I just can't understand the love for python.

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[–] TheOneCurly@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago (6 children)

I'm not a huge python fan but I'm pretty confused about point 3. What alternative languages have decent linear algebra support built in?

[–] scharf_2x40@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Julia, R, Matlab, Mathematica and Fortran.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 5 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Sounds like you're just using the wrong tool for the job, then.

It's like you're trying to drive a screw in with a hammer.

[–] scharf_2x40@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No I mean, Python is definitely the most used language in scientific computing, but yeah, I would use something else if I could.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Why would it be better or important in any way to have that be a "language feature" instead of a library?

If it can be a library, it's obviously not something that needs to be a part of the language. Most uses have absolutely no need for linear algebra. Why drag on useless baggage and bloat?

[–] scharf_2x40@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Yeah that point was not entirely accurate. What I meant was, that a np.array and a list don't work together. Coming from julia and matlab it just does not make sense to me, why I can't use a function written for a list for a np.array even if they basically represent the exaxt same thing.

Julia for example hast linalg as a module but functions work on lists with no problem.

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