I was listening to an old postcast from 2021 which discusses the inexplicable rise of Python.
I remember much of the positive sentiment around Python in the early days being less about Python and more about how powerful Perl is but Perl is Perl. Python being the nice and clean version of Perl meant it got all all the praise of Perl while enjoying the reputation of having none of the failings of Perl. In hindsight I think Python needed to stand on its own right, not just as a better Perl, but yet here we are. I think hindsight will show we should have considered the defects of Python more deeply. I know the lispers saw them but no one listens to them. Today Python is most dominant language on the planet and Perl is all but forgotten.
If you survey the language landscape now, a language can be much better than Python but never get the chance Python did just because it happened to look a bit better than Perl. Which is absurd to me.
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46355115
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