Am I too pessimistic about Python's future?

2 points by noon-raccoon 4 hours ago | 4 comments

Python was my main language for more than a decade. My unpopular opinion is that things started to go wrong with asyncio. It feels like a band-aid solution that required a whole new ecosystem to grow around it.

Typing was a good idea, but I feel like it was never fully completed. So we ended up with optional typing, which definitely helps with reading code, but that’s about it. I see many features being implemented to speed up execution, along with attempts — some successful — to overcome the GIL, but all of them look like really complex hacks to me.

Probably because of the PTSD from the Python 3 rollout, there will be no Python 4 that truly addresses the language’s problems.

Over the last few years, I’ve switched to Golang and TypeScript. I miss Python’s elegance, as well as quite a few libraries built for it, but I don’t like the direction the language is heading in. Am I being too pessimistic?

circadian 3 hours ago |

I can certainly appreciate the frustrations with newer elements of the language that introduce functionality, I was the same with typing in particular. That said, I came to realise two things: firstly the new elements in the language are not required to write idiosyncratic python the way I like and, secondly, they haven't fundamentally changed anything in the way Python operates as a language.

Python has been around a long time. It's no surprise that it's getting more bloated as an ecosystem. I was anti uv for a time as well, as well as annoyed at the plethora of tools for linting that seemed to ALL get introduced into some projects, conflicting with one another.

I became happier when I remembered to just ignore the things I didn't need or wasn't interested in. uv became a friend, linting I ignore as something I forget about in a pre-commit hook that is configured once across my projects if I use it at all. Typing I've actually realised can be helpful now it's becoming more natively implemented (e.g. no more "import typing"), because I'm getting more forgetful!

The pessimism is justified, so you're not being too pessimistic, but you might want to remember why you love python and ask whether or not it's still able to fundamentally achieve that thing...

theandrewbailey 3 hours ago |

You don't like some newer Python features (fair), but I don't think you've mentioned any actual problems that should be addressed. What would a Python 4 that solved everyone's problems and take us to the promised land look like to you?

damnitbuilds 3 hours ago |

The Python 2/3 disaster is not even over yet - I had to deal with a Python 2 problem TODAY.

There can be no Python 4.

noon-raccoon 1 hour ago | |

Ugh, I feel your pain. Why can’t you fully migrate to Python 3? No judgment — just curious.