On Apr 16, 10:36 pm, Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 2013.04.16 12:14, rusi wrote:> However combine it with your other statement > > >> Python's package management is suboptimal (though it is being worked on), > > > and a different picture emerges, viz that *the ecosystem around the > > language matters more than the language* > > It was a minor point, and while I think the ecosystem is important, I am not > arguing that it is more important than the language itself. > This discussion has much to do with ecosystems and little to do with > languages, so I'm not sure what your point is here.
Just what I said: ecosystem matters. We may or may not argue about "more than language", but it surely matters. Some examples: 1. In the link that Roderick originally posted there is a long comment that adds perl to the languages the author discussed. As a language perl is… um well… its perl. Yet when perl wins its because CPAN wins. 2. Haskell as a language is very well designed. However its package system -- cabal+hackage -- is completely broken. Unfortunately more mindshare is taken in haskell to -- fancy type sorcery -- new syntax (eg holes) -- compiling to more and more efficient code -- etc than setting right the package-mess. To be very correct here, its not so much that cabal+hackage is a mess as that the haskell community does not devote enough mindshare to it. 3. Linux: Steven was talking of the fact that firefox code is a mess. I would wager that much of the code in heavy use in linux is a mess. Yet linux works. Why? Apt. Long before cloud-computng became a buzzword, I could sit on my debian box and utter the incantation: $ aptitude update; aptitude upgrade and things would (mostly) keep working. 4. There was a recent question here: "How to install/uninstall manpages with distutils/setuptools?" It seems to be a very basic question. It's received no answer. In case I am chided for fault- finding without answering, let me say, I looked to see if I could help. Found nothing conclusive. Gave up. If it makes me culpable, ok I am contrite. Shouldn't the python community share some of the contrition? Terry wrote: > The irony is that the author goes on to say that the node.js community > 'works' because they all use the same infrastructure battery: git and > git-hub ;-). Its called the paradox of creativity: Constraints cultivate creativity: http://www.keepwriting.com/tsc/paradox.htm -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
