From: William James <w_a_x_man@...>
Date: 2007-09-25T18:40:05+09:00
Subject: Re: This is why Ruby 1.8.6 can never be made to run anywhere


Bill Kelly wrote:
[...]
> As for Python, i tended to find the experience more frustrating and
> less fun than writing comparable code in Ruby.  Learning Ruby, for me,
> involved a lot of "oh, wow, cool I can do that!"  Whereas learning Python
> I noticed a lot more, "oh... I'm not allowed to do that."
>
[...]
> But anyway, a few examples of things that rubbed me the wrong way
> about Python.  (Note, these may be things that Python people
> absolutely love about the language!)
>
> I found the distinction between expressions and statements, and the
> restrictions on where one or the other could occur in the syntax, to be
> very rigid and unhelpful.
>
> For example, the syntax is:
>
>   if expression:
>     statement
>   elif expression:
>     statement
>   else:
>     statement
>
> And assignments are not allowed in expressions.
>
> Thus, code that I wanted to write in Python like this, is illegal:
>
[...]
>
> I found this sort of thing very annoying, as can be seen from the note
> I left in the code for Guido (von Rossum, Creator of Python.)  <grin>
>
[...]
>
> Finally, I suppose this is a bit silly, but my very first few minutes with
> Python gave me a tangible feeling of trepidation when the following
> happened:
>
> I fired up Python (whatever the version was back then), and I got an
> interactive interpreter.  I was like, yay! cool!
>
>   Python 2.4.1 (#1, May 27 2005, 18:02:40)
>   Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>
> Then I tried to quit:
>
>   >>> exit
>   'Use Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit.'
>   >>> quit
>   'Use Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit.'
>   >>>
>
> And I thought... Oh no.  Somebody actually knew exactly what I
> wanted the computer to do - and actually went through the trouble
> to program a message to tell me I was doing it wrong.
>

With apologies to Stephen Crane.

  Code as I Code

  "Code as I code," said Guido,
  "Or you are abominably wicked;
  "You are a toad."

  And after I had thought of it,
  I said: "I will, then, be a toad."