Is Python too easy ? The Pava effect

In recent years I have been hired many times to analyze a range of already implemented Python applications.

My experience with this varied from ‘delightful’ - as in ‘I learned new tricks’ - all the way to ‘dreadful’ - as in ‘why am I not selling long drinks to tourists on a beautiful beach?’.

Let me get one thing out there right away: every developer has his/her own style in how a program flow is laid out. It’s like giving the core story to different authors and watching how completely different novels arise. This is normal and it’s a good thing.

Now, coming back to the title of this article: is Python too easy?

If you ever developed a program in any programming language (I’m looking at you: Quick Basic developers), getting up and running with Python is actually quite easy.

It probably takes you one 10-minute introduction video on YouTube and you are flying away, changing the world of coding.

And that can be a problem in its own!

The Pava effect

Python does not press you in that one-way-to-do-it schema as more stricter languages do. It’s  so flexible that it actually can be bend to look and feel like the language you are coming from.

I was asked to analyze a rather complex application, well beyond 50k lines of code.

While following through the code flow, I had a gut feeling that something was odd. Not that any particular functions were wrong or such, just an odd feeling.

During the analyzing and some talks with the in-house developers, it dawned on me:

All developers had a strong Java background and learned Python by themselves. The whole thing was a Java structure baked into Python, hence Pava.

It worked, no doubt. But with not embracing the very powerful Python way, they fell back on a rather weird usage pattern of __dunder__ functions to access information, which, would have been there - and faster - altogether, if it would have been setup in the Python way.

We are standing on the shoulders of giants!

I know, I know… you shrug and keep going! I probably would. It took me a lot of time to finally sit down and try to understand, what Python was all about (PEP20 as a starter).

Python is a very powerful language, which is still evolving today.

In that sense, Python is way too easy, as it does not force you to understand its underlying processes. It can look and feel like another language, but it’s not!

So, what’s next?

I recommend to get out there and watch that 10 minutes Python introduction video. Then get your feet wet and do a couple of apps.

But then, take some time, to understand the beauty of Python and all its implications. If you spend 2 hrs a week on this, you will be a much better Python developer after a year or so already. Your code will be more structured and faster and maybe, you will be that tourist I’m gonna sell long drinks to, at that beautiful beach one day!