On Thu, 30 Jun 2005, Roy Smith wrote: > Terry Hancock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> One of the strengths of Python has been that the language itself is >> small (which it shares with C and (if I understand correctly, not being >> a lisp programmer?) Lisp), but with all the syntax enhancements going >> on, Python is getting pretty complicated. I have to wonder if new users >> won't begin to find it just as intimidating as Perl or other big >> languages. > > +1 > > Even some of the relatively recent library enhancements have been kind > of complicated. The logging module, for example, seems way over the > top.
Exactly the same thing happened with Java. if you look at the libraries that were in 1.1, they're very clean and simple (perhaps with the exception of AWT). 1.2 added a load of stuff that was much less well-designed (with the notable exception of the collections stuff, which is beautiful), and a lot of the extension packages that have been written since then are seriously crappy. My particular bugbear is JAI, the imaging library, the most gratuitously badly-designed library it has ever been my misfortune to work with. EJB is another great example. I imagine the reason for this degradation has been the expansion of the java design team: it started off with James Gosling, who is an incredibly smart guy and an awesome engineer, and a relatively small team of crack troops; they were capable of writing good code, and really cared about doing that. Over the years, as it's grown, it's had to absorb a lot of people who don't have that combination of intelligence and good taste, and they've written a lot of crap. I suspect a trend away from gifted lone hackers and towards design by committee hasn't helped, either. How this applies to python, where the BDFL is still very much at the helm, is not clear. I wonder if analogies to Linux, also a despotism, are more useful? tom -- In-jokes for out-casts -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
