Two years of Python

2012-10-17T05:00:00Z

About two years ago, my dad convinced me to try Python. His argument was "I liked it, you probably will too." I know, it isn't exactly the greatest argument, but after the initial blowing him off, I decided that I needed to be open-minded and actually try Python.

Since then, I've written a few non-trivial applications including some media processing tools, a pretty extensive set of writing utilities, and a slew of other little scripts here and there. I also have an entire ebook publication system written in Python.

When I went to the cabin two weeks ago, I was talking to my dad about it and I realized something: I don't like Python. I mean, Python is a great little language and I'm fairly competent at it. I would still recommend it for teaching people who to program. But, as a language, I don't think it's the language for me.

My reasons are not the technical ones. Instead, they are reasons that are purely wrapped in my head. I've been programing C-based languages (C, C++, Objective C, Java, C#) for 31 years, ever since my dad taught me K&R C for my 6th birthday (I still remember the little ANSI robot program we wrote together). My formative years and my history is wrapped in that language and the further away I move from it, the more difficulties I'm having.

For Python, I can't handle the lack of braces. I don't know why, I don't handle not having that final brace for a scope. I've tried to remove that limitation of mine, but it doesn't seem to be happening. I also struggle with the lack of statement terminals (semicolon) in much the same way.

There is also the philosophy behind Python. I like one class per file. I like small files and tools (ReSharper) that let me work with them. I like documentation comments above the code, not as a triple-quoted string. Like the concise base instead of super(Class) syntax. Even tabs, I like my tabs and PEP-8 highly recommends that I abandon that preference.

These are trivial, stupid little things. But, after two years, I'm going to say I haven't gotten rid of them.

I'm not fond of Ruby, CoffeeScript, and PowerShell for the same reasons. It isn't specific to Python, I just spent two years trying to break out of these mental framework and I'm not doing that great of a job.

So, what does it mean? Probably not much. I still have a number of Python libraries that I'm using day-to-day. Eventually, I'll probably migrate them to C#. It will make my life easier because I know the libraries. I might do something silly like try TypeScript (which looks pretty sexy) or just JavaScript, but I suspect that C# will be the language of choice for a few more years.

There are some nice things. Not having to worry about Unicode and XML is a big one (I had a code bug with that this evening), using the tools I'm intimately comfortable with, and taking advantage of the knowledge I already have.

I'll still learn new languages, that's important, but my daily tools will probably migrate to what I'm comfortable with. Otherwise, I'll continue to struggle with maintaining them because I can't seem to get my head wrapped around them properly. And since I only touch the code every few weeks at a time (since they are fairly stable), reducing the context switching would keep me productive.

I'm glad I tried Python though, instead of dismissing it out of principle. The struggles I had to learn the language, trying to work through my problems, and even just seeing a new library made my life richer. It wasn't a waste of time by far. It was a great experience and I would recommend it for anyone who doesn't know Python.

Efficiency

2012-02-24T06:00:00Z

I will be the first to tell you, I like efficiency. I like it when things just work and everything chugs forward. The presentation I did at Iowa Code Camp was related to that since I get relatively very little time to write. So, I do a lot to make sure those 10-20 minutes are the fastest things I can write.

Some of it comes down to planning ahead, but others is just doing more with less.

At work, I just finished something that my obsession appears to be benefiting others. When I started, we had a process for getting a new code base. It was somewhat long and had a lot of manual steps including restoring databases, copying files, making changes. It took about an hour to get everything set up.

So, developers would get out of sync simply because it was a lot of work.

I get frustrated if I have to do something three times in a row. At first, I just created a script to run a few things in batch file, but then I found the power of PowerShell. Now, I'm a Linux user at heart and a Perl programmer at the core. I'm also Damn Good™ at .NET languages. So, PowerShell was a god-send (except that I dislike the ascethics of the language and it doesn't require semicolons).

I started with just a little thing. Install the database, run some scripts. Then added in copying files. Making changes. Slowly, I built up a system that eventually got to the point that I would type one line, hit return and come back twenty minutes later and everything was done (we got much faster machines during this time).

I talked about it for a few months and then... someone asked for it. I polished it up and in a bit of free time, got it running. Took me an hour to set up their computer. I went back and fixed the bugs I found. Another developer asked. Only took twenty minutes. I fixed a few things. Added another of my pet projects that was blessed last year as official.

Another developer asked. Ten minutes.

Another. Still ten, but mostly because I explained how to customize everything. I had a meeting with the rest of the developers.

And then, I got compliments. I was making people's lives easier. The painful process was a lot less painful and they were happy.

I still have improvements to do on the program. Little things to make it work just right for everyone. But, when I wrote this, I paid attention to how everyone worked. I tried to write something that was flexible enough to cater to everyone else's quirks and not just my own. And... I made their lives easier.

A long time ago, I was a cocky bastard of a programmer. I thought I was the universe's gift to bits. I learned otherwise and I'm glad I did. There really is nothing to compare to the high of helping others. I love when they say "this is so easy" instead of watching them dread it.

So, for those curious, the script did the following:

Downloaded the databases
Decompressed them using the PSCX
Restored databases
Set up database sizes, shrank files, connected users
Copied common files and linked them using junction points
Copied the release files
Installed configuration files
Edited the configuration files to match the setup
Got the source, either from a label or the latest (had a lot of help with this one)
Ran the script-based client to do everything else