Every release brings Python closer to becoming Java. Another ten or so years, an...

ptx · on July 31, 2023

And conversely every release of Java brings it closer to becoming Python.

With Java 4 we got regular expressions.

With Java 5 we got varargs, string formatting, boxed numbers, syntax for looping over collections and imports of static methods.

With Java 7 we got Timsort, the sorting algorithm from Python.

With Java 8 we got first-class functions.

With Java 9 we got a REPL.

With Java 11 we got implicit compilation of source files so you can run them directly.

In more recent releases, we have previews of features corresponding to f-strings and ctypes.

crabbone · on July 31, 2023

Don't get me wrong. I think Java and Python are both awful. I also think that by trying to exchange features they become even worse.

I'm absolutely not excited and not looking forward to seeing any more versions of either of these languages. Well, maybe just a little bit, in an accelerationist kind of way.