Filed in: Writing.PythonHasSpoiledMe · Modified on : Wed, 17 Jun 09
The Python programming language has spoiled me for all other languages. Let me paint a picture.
Shambling aimlessly around the Internet like a coked-out zombie as is my wont, I happen across some naughty young thing called ChucK. Once I get over the gimmicky goofy capitalisation, I check out the website, read the tutorial, and browse the language reference and examples. I see the '@=>' array-assignment operator and think, oh good, it's got arrays; atleast I won't have a bunch of variables named 'note1', 'note2', etc. But then my mind wanders... Does it have built-in lists? Sets? Standardised iteration over these (and other various) collections? What about slices? Overriding of built-in methods like __str__, __getitem__, and the rest?
Of course, it's not fair to expect this from a low key, domain-specific language/environment like ChucK. And in no way am I ragging on it for lacking these things. Yet, I can't help but miss them. This is certainly due in no small part to a character flaw of my own and my limited persistence with the myriad high-investment, flash-in-the-pan interests I tend to get entangled with.
For another example, take the Java-based visualisation-centric Processing. Another neat little application+language, but when I hear the word "array", I shudder. Array?!? How clandestine! Next you'll be asking me to bitwise XOR two unsigned long longs and (gasp!) malloc a struct! Bah!
Cursed Python.