Since its inception, Microsoft Excel has changed how people organize, analyze, and visualize their data, providing a basis for decision-making for the flying billionaires heads up in the clouds who don’t give a fuck for life offtheline

  • upstream@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Works for Microsoft and hates Python. Checks out at least.

    IMHO opinions (read: “hard takes”) on popular and useful programming languages doesn’t have to be part of any disclosure, it just creates unnecessary drama.

    At the end of the day programming languages are tools, and Python is a good tool. Part hammer, part Swiss Army knife.

    Sure, you can grab your compressor, a hose and a nail gun, but the fact is that with Python I can process CSV documents that excel struggle to open in less time than it will take most people to setup a new project in Visual Studio.

    I fully agree that running stuff in the cloud may be good for security, but it will probably also open the door for a number of security holes that may or may not be exploited before being patched.

    Giving full access to random scripts on random people’s computers is begging for problems.

    Sandboxing only works until there’s an escape. But IMO that should have been the target. Proper ground up sandboxing.

    On the other hand - how on earth do you make sure that it’s escape proof? I certainly wouldn’t carry that responsibility.

    If it’s Python or something else doesn’t matter, but Python certainly carries a lot of the “accessibility” that VB did way back when they made VBA.

    Will be interesting to see what people make of it. And if they’ve managed to make the programming interfaces better than during the VBA era.

    • dax@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I feel like you think you’re talking to a different person than I am. My work computer is a linux box, my work IDE is either Jetbrains CLion or Pycharm, and my 40-hour-a-week-job is writing open source software that I release on behalf of Microsoft. So, yanno, if you want python libraries for graph spectral embeddings or approximate nearest neighbor algorithms, that’s me.

      The only thing I know about Visual Studio is it is distinctly not built for me, and I don’t use it. I wouldn’t know the first thing about creating a project in Visual Studio, because in the last 7 years I haven’t created a single one in it. Gradle and Kotlin or SBT and Scala, sure. Python and pip, sure.

      My problem with Python has nothing to do with the language itself. It has to do with the packaging. Remember that bit about me releasing open source software for Microsoft? Yeah. I’m stuck doing a lot of the packaging.

      Friends don’t let friends use Python, because then they’re complicit in the frankly inhumane conditions in the pypa pit of eternal despair. Hug your numpy packager today!

      • upstream@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        If I misunderstood it’s probably because of the way you represented yourself.

        Python packaging sucks, definitely, but saying you hate Python because packaging sucks (and you do it a lot) is bit like saying you hate the US because US immigration sucks (and you travel through immigration a lot).

        Sure, you could hold the opinion, but I think most people would differentiate between the two positions.

        However, kudos for working on OS! I’d give you a hug if I could!