Python

The best language.

Walk the Line (2005)

Waylon Jennings: How come you ain't ever tried this kind of pickin', Luther?

[Picks a song on his guitar]

Luther Perkins: Well, Waylon, whatever you're lookin' for, I've already found.

Types

• also see static types
• not the panacea their supporters claim they are
• in particular, not being able to type exceptions is a design omission rooted entirely in fear
• rarely actually catch bugs
  • although useful when refactoring, as you can chase errors in an ide
• unit tests catch more bugs while adding more value
• potentially useful in documentation, although unclear if worth the maintenance burden

High performance

• numpy gets close to native speed
• cython when you need to do something numpy doesn't support