On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 7:16 PM, Christoph Hellwig <hch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 07:29:36PM +0200, Jerome Martin wrote: >> Is that a generic statement about all python programs in the world, a >> religious statement or a sign your might just be in a bad mood >> Christoph :-) ? > > It's a a statement that using python causes lazy programming. It's > not a 100% statement, but Python and Java are the only languages I > frequently see pages long stack traces for simple errors, just because > programmers were to lazy to implement error handling. I see your point but IMHO it is similar to stating that DIY stores are causing sloppy electrical installations: it might be true to some extent, but not because of the quality of sold tools and materials, rather because they are made available to a greater, less qualified audience. Which is good for many applications - hanging picture frames, painting walls - but could lead to disaster just as well - electrical installation. Are the DIY stores to blame for this or would that be the wrong fight ? I must say, however, that I sometimes thread myself on the darker side of programming tools snobbishness, so I can relate to what you said. An example would be when I have a favorable preconception of a piece of software just because it is written in a language I respect - say, erlang or lisp - and often my initial guess is right, as the community for those languages is smaller and usually more savvy/qualified than say the Java community at large by the sheer force of statistics. But it remains a snobbish attitude nonetheless, and might lead one to convince oneself otherwise perfectly functioning brain of an abusive generalization such as "python causes lazy programming" just because seeing less lazy code written in one's language(s) of choice. Cognitive illusions are even more powerful when we rationalize them. Best, -- Jérôme Martin -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe target-devel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
