What language is “just as productive but isn't going to lock us into abysmal per...

IshKebab · 2026-01-02T21:50:08 1767390608

Typescript, C#, Go, Rust.

I'd say they are almost strictly superior to Python, but there are some minor factors why you might still choose Python over those. E.g. arbitrary precision integers, or the REPL. Go is a bit tedious and Rust is harder to learn (but productive once you have).

But overall they would all be a better choice than Python. Yes even for startups who need to move fast.

gcanyon · 2026-01-03T23:19:53 1767482393

I say this out of genuine surprise, not judgment -- I never would have guessed that native Typescript is significantly faster than native Python. To be fair, I don't know if "significantly" is justified. I get that Typescript is typed (heh) and Python is not, but compared to my daily driver language (also not typed) Python is so much faster that I subconsciously think of typing as not being the major performance unlock. But I guess once you optimize the rest, typing is (nearly) the final boss of performance.

nazgul17 · 2026-01-02T02:11:57 1767319917

Loose typing makes you really fast at writing code, as long as you can keep all the details in your head. Python is great for smaller stuff. But crossed some threshold, the lack of a mechanism that has your back starts slowing you down.

gcanyon · 2026-01-02T04:00:37 1767326437

Sure, my language of choice is more flexible than that: I can type

   put "test abc999 this" into x
   add 1 to char 4 to 6 of word 2 of x
   put x -- puts "test abc1000 this"

But I'm still curious -- what's the better language?