Interview: Vernor Vinge

Posted Dec 11, 2008 12:06 UTC (Thu) by NRArnot (subscriber, #3033)
In reply to: Interview: Vernor Vinge by ncm
Parent article: Interview: Vernor Vinge

Python is the sub-orbital transport, and Python 3 a mark II thereof. ;-)

But in this analogical context, we're looking for the Starship with the FTL drive.

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Language wars

Posted Dec 11, 2008 12:55 UTC (Thu) by ncm (guest, #165) [Link] (1 responses)

Sorry, but Python, in this context, is a motorcycle. It's more fun than a semi truck, and more versatile, but as handy as it is, Python does not now, and never will, carry industrial freight. Yes, a dirt bike could pull a trailer, but not well, and attaching a trailer misses the point of the dirt bike. Incidentally, Lisp is an ornithopter.

Getting back on topic, the interstellar transport might be a language designed to program (or coax?) arrays of quantum processors, but that's as far off as real interstellar transports. We have at least three architectural generations before we get there. Probably it won't be recognizable as a language at all, and the problems it solves would not even be recognizable to us as problems that computation could address.

Language wars

Posted Dec 11, 2008 15:51 UTC (Thu) by Ze (guest, #54182) [Link]

See I'd be inclined to call Python the scooter (and not a motor scooter :p).

I think most of the advantages of python have very little to do with the language and more with the API , that and some people seem to like lazy typing. I don't really find it any easier. I do look forward to the keyword auto in c++0x to take over where the type can be inferred.