Python Creator Guido Van Rossum Reviews Popular Programming Languages

Guido Van Rossum, the former Benevolent dictator for life, shared his thoughts on programming languages during a live question-and-answer session with Francesca, Microsoft's principal, and advocate manager.

Python's creator gave a candid interview about his programming career, which began at the University of Amsterdam.

The Python founder explained how he draws inspiration from other programming languages and works to evolve his projects. He also discussed his first career project, the ABC language, which he stated failed due to a lack of distribution channels, resulting in a lack of users.

He also discussed how, despite his passion for languages, he has been unable to adapt to a new language because, whenever he attempts to implement the language, he ends up saying, "I already know how to do that in Python." It is as if Python is his native tongue.

Guido Van shared his thoughts on four different programming languages and their performance in comparison to Python. He also explained to the viewers why these languages are so fascinating.

Why is Rust such a fascinating language?

Rust surpassed Python in terms of performance. Rust has an advantage over other languages in that it can be compiled directly into machine code. Van Rossum believes the language has a significant advantage over C++ in certain areas, such as memory allocation.

Additionally, he believes it has an advantage when it comes to memory allocation: "And, of course, it solves the memory allocation problem near-perfectly." Van Rossum believes that when a program is written in Rust, the programmer can be confident of the memory allocation and memory management features that contribute to the language's appeal.

Which programming language is the most Pythonic?

According to Van Rossum, Go is the most Pythonic general-purpose language available. Go, short for Golang, is primarily used for server-side programming.

Python and Go both have a high degree of readability and are suitable for beginners. Indeed, Go was created to make Python more readable. It is faster than Python due to its rapid data compilation speed.

Julia: which compiler is superior?

According to Van Rossum, a significant advantage of Julia over Python is that its compiler optimizes code in ways that Python's compiler never does.

The one-based indexing and inclusive ranges rather than exclusive ranges distinguish it significantly from Python, even if they appear identical at first glance. Julia, he believes, is more of a niche language, designed for specific purposes and lacking in others.

Additionally, he stated that he would never expect someone to write web server code in Julia and get much mileage out of it, as that would likely end up on Hacker News soon after someone tinkers with the technology.

Python is actively learning from TypeScript in what way?

Van Rossum initially disagreed with Van Rossum's assessment of TypeScript as a great language, believing it had jumped on the JavaScript bandwagon. Though he was not aware of TypeScript initially, Python is now adding static typing/gradual typing.

According to him, TypeScript has accomplished a few things that Python has yet to figure out, and Python looks to TypeScript for examples and areas for improvement.

He stated that they had added some features to Python that were initially missing from TypeScript but were added in response to demand and have become extremely popular.

His frequent conversations with Danish engineer Anders Hejlsberg indicate that TypeScript absorbs as much knowledge from Python as it imparts. He compared it to JavaScript's early years when it learned from Python.

Each of the languages reviewed by Guido Van Rossum excels at a specific task, such as Julia excels at mathematical and technical tasks. Go is unmatched in molecular programming, and Rust excels at systems programming.

Python is, without a doubt, the most popular programming language that has enabled the development of numerous machine learning-based programs. Python quickly achieved its goal of becoming a toolkit for programmers writing in C or C++.

Though it has numerous advantages, the language has been problematic due to its slowness and high testing requirements. Despite testing, it generates runtime errors. Additionally, it is weakly typed and dynamically typed, putting it at a disadvantage compared to statically typed and strongly typed languages such as Julia and Go.

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