Q: I was wondering if there's any kind of definitive nickname for Perl
   programmers, the way we call ourselves Pythonistas? - Aahz Maruch
A: Masochists. - Daniel Klein
%
Me? I use bash for one-liners, Perl for ten-liners,
and Python for thousand-liners. - Frater, Slashdot
%
When you have the experience of really being able to be as productive
as possible, then you start to get pissed off at other languages.
You think, "Gee, I've been wasting my time with these other languages."
 - Bruce Eckel (talking about Python vs. C++ and Java)
%
Too much cleverness in the parser can turn against you.
 - Guido Van Rossum
%
 Perl is a language for dog people, i.e., people who like big, shaggy,
messy critters that slobber all over the place, chew on everything,
and that require a lot of work to maintain.
 Python is a language for cat people, people who like neat, independent,
self-contained critters that don't require a lot of maintenance.
 - Eric L. Green
%
Python:
    programming
    the way Guido
    indented it
%
Python is the Beatles of programming languages.
 - Aaron K. Johnson on comp.lang.python
%
Python is the absolute best at developing things that take more
than a hour to do, of all the languages I have ever seen, period.
 - Laura Creighton
%
I occasionally find myself chuckling to myself while I code [in Python],
because it all fits together so beautifully. - Nick Vargish
%
Python is the language which, when used in combination with appropriate
(i.e. sparse) amounts of C, makes C++ completely valueless. - Peter Hansen
%
Learning Python over the past couple years has been the biggest
surprise to me. Other languages I've used give me the mentality of
"get the language to do what I want", whereas Python is more directly
"just do what you want". - Pete Shinners, PyGame maintainer
%
No amount of compile time handholding can protect you from weak
programmers who are bandwagoning on Java. And a talented programmer
will be writing useful Python code in a week. - Bill de hóra
%
After having used Python intensively for six years, Industrial Light
& Magic has yet to run into significant bugs or portability issues
with the language. [...] Since its adoption in 1996, the use of Python
has also been reviewed numerous times. Each time, ILM failed to find
a more compelling solution. - Tim Fortenberry, 2002
%
I'm a Python fanatic these days, I find that I'm able to program about
three times faster than I could in Java, and I was able to program
in Java about three times faster than I could in C. - Andy Hertzfeld
%
Unlike some other scripting languages, Python syntax tends to be in
words rather than typographical syntax - it's very unlikely you'll be
writing lines of code that look like comic book curse words. As a result,
when you have to come back to your code six months later, odds are you
will still be able to understand it. - Samuele Pedroni, Noel Rappin
%
Every time I think stupid thoughts like, "I'll bet I could do this in
C++," I get out my copy of Scott Meyers' "Effective C++," and I'm quickly
reminded why it's better to stick with Python. - Mike, comp.lang.python
%
I believe that C -> C++ -> Java -> Python establishes a nice continuum
of systems-oriented, low-level programming to application-oriented,
high-level programming. - Glyph Lefkowitz
%
Python is not "pure" as languages like Lisp and Java attempt to be -
it abandons individual ideological standpoints (Object-Oriented! (Java)
Functional! (Lisp) Procedural! (Pascal) Efficient! (C) Expressive!
(Perl)) to produce a synthesis of all of the above that makes for
appropriate syntax for appropriate structures. - Glyph Lefkowitz
%
I believe it was definitely worth moving from C to C++, and from C++ to
Java. [...] For something as advanced as Python is over those languages,
and as different, there will be some hesitation. However, it seems that
in all these cases economics wins out. - Bruce Eckel
%
You need a book to learn Python?!??!!? My god, I'm an old C++ programmer,
Python is like a gift from a god! You just have to bang your head against
the keyboard a couple of times and I bet you it compiles! ;)
 - h4rm0ny, Slashdot, January 2004
%
Later that night I got to ask Ruby's creator, Mats, whether Ruby was
more like Python or more like Perl, while Larry Wall was standing next
to us. Mats responded that it was more like Perl, adding that Larry was
his hero. - Guido Van Rossum, Python language creator, January 2004
%
The next stage is to drop the complexities of Java and C# and do it all
in scripting languages like Python which allow easier, faster and cheaper
software development. Microsoft are already doing this with the .Net version
of Visual Basic and it is on its way for Java with projects like Jython.
 - Nicholas Blachford, osnews.com, 2004
%
Instant web server:
1) cd /directory/to/be/published
2) python -c 'import SimpleHTTPServer; SimpleHTTPServer.test()'
3) point your browser to http://localhost:8000/
4) Profit. :^)
 - Nicola Larosa
%
A Pythonista trying to convince a world of Java heads to do it another
way? Your cries for sanity will be lost in the "public static void".
 - Eric, comp.lang.python, March 2004
%
When a student asks why case matters, simply ask why it shouldn't matter.
If they think it would be easier to use Python if they can be inconsistent
in their use of case, then they have the answer. Python helps teach that
consistency matters. - Michael McLay, April 2004
%
...sometimes when programming in Python I wish Python had a feature
or syntax found in Lisp, but then I code around it and remember why
I am using Python in the first place. - Jeff Sandys, May 2004
%
We can be so conditioned to complexity and cleverness, that it becomes
hard to find the simplicity and obviousness "hiding" right in front of
our nose! Fortunately, Python helps a lot in this quest for simplicity
and clarity. - Alex Martelli
%
I don't have time to maintain 50k lines of Java code, so I need to
rewrite it in 5k lines of Python. :-> - David Ripton, May 2004
%
Overall, the number one thing I've figured out from this whole exercise
[writing a VoIP phone program] is that people who refer to Python
dismissively as "just a scripting language" probably don't know what
they're talking about. - Anthony Baxter, PyCon 2004
%
Python gives you enough rope to hang yourself, but you have to know where
to look. Its land has a dearth of trees, branches or posts to use the rope
to actually hang yourself. And the landscape is so beautiful we don't even
notice most of the time. :) - Chris on comp.lang.python, July 2004
%
I'm always telling people about how Python just gets out of your way and
lets you focus on the problem, but I didn't even realize that it was
unittest that was in my way before. Heck, I just thought unit testing
was hard. I'll bet that that's what happens with Java programmers, too.
They probably just think programming is hard. :)
 - Phillip J. Eby, dirtSimple.org, November 2004
%
Adding things just because you can leads to monstrosities like Common LISP,
PL/I, Algol 68 and Perl 6. Adding features only when they add functionality
(or better yet, by removing restrictions) leads to jewels like Python,
Scheme and Eiffel. - Mike Meyer, comp.lang.python, April 2005
%
Lad: Is anyone capable of providing Python advantages over PHP if there
    are any?
Jorey Bump: As you learn Python, you will find that your PHP code will
    improve, possibly becoming more and more concise until it disappears
    completely. - comp.lang.python, April 2005
%
Learning C after learning Python can be done via Pyrex. [...]
Learning Java after learning Python can be done via Jython. [...]
Learning Perl after learning Python can ... never mind. ;-)
 - André Roberge, May 2005
%
  Perl: you shoot yourself in the foot, but can't figure out how you did
it so you find a dozen new ways to do it.
  Python: you shoot yourself in the foot and everything goes so smoothly
that you go ahead to shoot yourself in the other foot then your legs,
then your torso and then your head. Problem solved.
 - http://linux.sgms-centre.com/howto/shootfoot.php , October 2003
%
Children understand about conventions. I draw an invisible line on the car
seat: sister stays on her side, I stay on mine. But there's no electric
fence (much as we might wish there to be). Java provides electric fences.
Python provides lines in the sand. Children know the difference.
 - Kirby Urner, May 2005
%
Python is the best thing I've seen in 30 years of computing for pedagogical
and productive purposes. Only when I want speed do I see a need for
something else. - Chuck Allison, June 2005
%
My advice is to use the [Python] language instead of fighting it. Guido
has marked the trail; don't ignore the signs unless you really know
where you're going. - Raymond Hettinger, comp.lang.python, July 2005
%
Python is my choice [...], however. Perl is for people who need to
repent for some other misdeed. :) - Eddie Parker, October 2005
%
Yeah! Another web framework for Python! Now we can proudly say:
Python: the only language with more web frameworks than keywords.
 - Harald A. Massa, December 2005
%
Python is not Java, and Java's use of getters and setters is a reflection
of its inadequacies as a programming language, not a badge of strength.
They're a bug, not a feature. - Phillip J. Eby, December 2005
%
The expression of coroutines in Ruby (at least, according to Tate's
example) is awkward, but they are there, and I suspect that this may be
why coroutines - albeit in a much more elegant form - are appearing in
Python 2.5. - Bruce Eckel, December 2005
%
One of the basic tenets of the Python language has been that code should
be simple and clear to express and to read, and Ruby has followed this
idea, although not as far as Python has because of the inherited Perlisms.
 - Bruce Eckel, December 2005
%
I have not heard of any of the rather significant core of Python language
and library developers saying "hey, this Ruby thing really solves a lot
of problems we've been having in Python, I'm going over there." Instead,
they write PEPs (Python Enhancement Proposals) and morph the language to
incorporate the good features. - Bruce Eckel, December 2005
%
You can monkeypatch code in Python pretty easily, but we look down
on it enough that we call it "monkeypatching". In Ruby they call it
"opening a class" and think it's a cool feature. I will assert: we
are right, they are wrong. - Ian Bicking, December 2005
%
Zope3 feels like a wise granddad with vigour, Django as a bubblegum-
chewing teenager with lots of energy and TurboGears as something in
between. (If Twisted was to get an analogy it'd be Einstein or
someone like that.) - Peter Bengtsson, February 2006
%
[Python] insists upon arranging the cupboard into strict rows, but you
stop noticing after a while, and eventually you come to prefer your
shelves organized this way. Your friends think this is weird until
they start dating Python too. - Meredith L. Patterson, March 2006
%
A style guide is about consistency. Consistency with this style guide is
important. Consistency within a project is more important. Consistency
within one module or function is most important. But most importantly:
know when to be inconsistent - sometimes the style guide just doesn't
apply. - Guido Van Rossum, Barry Warsaw, July 2001
%
Why is it that comp.lang.python is suddenly full of folks who want
to deprecate anything they don't understand? Don't you have better
things to do with your time? - Fredrik Lundh, March 2006
%
Python plays a key role in our production pipeline. Without it a project
the size of Star Wars: Episode II would have been very difficult to pull
off. From our crowd rendering to batch processing to compositing, Python
binds all things together. - Tommy Burnette, Industrial Light and Magic
%
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules - but with over-
loading, you can bend the rules to accomodate them. Or as Uncle Timmy
put it, "1) Everything is a trivial special case of something else, and
2) death is a bunch of blue spheres." :) - Phillip J. Eby, March 2006
%
I have been working on a design doc for restricted execution of Python
as part of my dissertation for getting Python into Firefox to replace
JavaScript on the web. - Brett Cannon, June 2006
%
Mochikit is well designed and well thought out, and Python/Twisted/Nevow
developers will definitely find its API very familiar. [...] Mochikits's
capabilities will probably surprise you - the createDOM function,
iteration tools and the asynchronous architecture are a work of art.
 - Dan Webb, June 2006
%
Don't get me wrong, I like Ruby. And it's not particularly difficult
to read. But the philosophy of the language designers led to design
choices that emphasize writability over readability. And in that
department I think the advantage has to go to Python.
 - Mark Ramm-Christensen, June 2006
%
The vector<> or set<> implementations of GCC are far superior to those of
VC++ 6, but that memory allocation for GCC 3.4.5 (MinGW version) is far
worse than that of MSCRT / VC++ 6. (And Python still smokes them both.)
 - Tim N. van der Leeuw, August 2006
%
$ python
>>> from __future__ import braces
SyntaxError: not a chance
 - Python interpreter since at least v.2.2
%
Poo-Poo to static languages. Django makes me happy. Struts makes my spleen
ache. I've bloody well had enough of J2EE too. It's like the Sun engineers
got paid by the line. - Anonymous on Code Craft blog, October 2006
%
Lots of people are looking to hire Python programmers. So many people [at
PyCon 2007] giving lightning talks were looking for workers that it got
to be a running joke: the few who weren't hiring would always start with:
"First off, I'm not hiring." - Ned Batchelder, February 2007
%
Seems I may not be able to retain my title as "non-programmer" much longer.
What can I say? Python has made programming fun again.
 - Jeff Croft, December 2006
%
I made my first commit to Python today.
If that doesn’t get the girls, I don’t know what will.
 - Collin Winter, January 2007
%
The hype surrounding Ruby and Rails is very strong at the moment. Python,
on the contrary, has a more understated attitude: never in fashion, never
out of fashion but always useful and powerful, almost a secret weapon.
 - Manuel on O'Reilly Radar, March 2007
%
I love that my Python code is clean, readable, and maintainable.
I love that Python is intuitive and things just work as I would expect.
It takes a little while to get used to, but I think once you do,
it’s hard to go back to anything else. - YouOS blog, August 2006
%
Imagine putting Python at the mercy of 50 million kids.
comp.lang.python might get a bit busy.
 - Ivan Krstic, OLPC project, February 2007
%
C'e` troppo software che vuole essere scritto, e a farlo tutto in C++
non ci si arrivera` mai: a farlo in Python, con C++ per quel 20% circa
dove serve proprio, riesco a realizzare tanto, tanto di piu`.
 - Alex Martelli, Febbraio 2006
%
Restricting Python's grammar to an LL(1) parser is a blessing, not a
curse. It puts us in handcuffs that prevent us from going overboard
and ending up with funky grammar rules like some other dynamic languages
that will go unnamed, like Perl. - George Brandsl, April 2006
%
There's no need to add URL cruft such as .php - unless you have a
sick sense of humor, in which case you can do something like this:
  (r'^polls/latest\.php$', 'mysite.polls.views.index'),
But, don't do that. It's silly.
 - Django web framework documentation, 2007
%
We want to be completely sure that we trust someone before giving them
commit access. Sure, we could switch to a model like PHP where anyone
with a patch gets commit access, but then we'd risk turning out like,
well, PHP. - Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Django developer, April 2007
%
Mozilla is leaning towards Python. Adoption of Python at Google is
growing. Heck, the OLPC project picked Python. Ruby is getting all the
press, but it seems that it's Python that people are really picking up.
 - Aristotle Pagaltzis, May 2007
%
Python doesn't have Perl's "There's more than one way to do it" problem,
so all Python books describe the same language. Perl books tend to
describe the subsections of the language that particular author likes. It
takes about three different Perl books to cover every language feature.
 - John Nagle, May 2007
%
I [...] am quite comfortable with Django. I too come from PHP, and
Python has been easy to learn. I have found that most of the "advanced"
stuff I've ever dreamed about while on PHP, is built-in in Python.
 - Christian M. Hoeppner, May 2007
%
Developers will have no reason not to support Py3k, since they can
continue to support their existing customer base without too much hassle.
That's a good thing, and I wish we would have seen more approaches like
this in the past. At SnapLogic we are developing in Python. Yet again
it looks like this was a good idea. - Juergen@SnapLogic, June 2007
%
It's not just that Django's templating system hits the big bulgy
middle of the bell curve, but that the project as a whole does.
Opinionated, but not too opinionated. Enough salt to bring out
the flavors, not enough to overwhelm them.
 - Jason McBrayer, July 2007
%
If you really want "true" multi-threading for Python, use Jython
or IronPython; the JVM and the CLR do support multi-CPU threads.
Of course, be prepared for deadlocks, live-locks, race conditions,
and all the other nuisances that come with multi-threaded code.
 - Guido van Rossum, July 2007
%
Restricting yourself to the intersection of the two versions [Python 2.6
and 3.0] is very painful and limited. We're not introducing backwards
compatibility syntax in 3.0, because that would defeat the purpose
(we've had backwards compatibility forever in 2.x, and the whole point
of 3.0 is to clean up the mess). - Guido van Rossum, July 2007
%
I've been pretty much convinced that we've got to have autoescape,
and it's got to be on by default. It's basically a tradeoff
between annoyance (of having to turn it off when you need it off)
and security, and security has to win that argument.
 - Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Django developer, July 2007
%
I really worry that we shouldn't be trying to reinvent Turbogears
here [in Django]. If somebody wants plug-and-change-their-mind
components, it's already spelt "Turbogears" or "Pylons".
 - Malcolm Tredinnick, August 2007
%
It is easy to be clever whereas it takes a lot of time to become
unclever. For instance, it took me a few months to understand how to
use metaclasses, but a few years to understand how *not* to use them.
 - Michele Simionato, July 2006
%
Q: You're flying! How?
A: Python! I learned it last night! Everything is so
   simple! Hello world is just *print "Hello, world"*!
Q: I dunno... Dynamic typing? *Whitespace*?
A: Come join us! Programming is fun again!
   It's a whole new world up here!
 - Randall Munroe, http://xkcd.com/353/ , December 2007
%
I've been bitten by [Javascript] mutable built-ins one too many times
to trust that in any language (and that leads to an interesting
disconnect, where Ruby people flock almost exclusively to Protoype -
which does fiddle with the built-ins - and Python people flock almost
exclusively to Mochikit or Dojo). - James Bennett, June 2006
%
I tried Ruby on Rails, knowing no Ruby, and got pretty far, but very
frustrated. I tried Django, knowing no Python, and got most places
I wanted to get. Django++. - Bradley Whittington, August 2006