I was interested in the piece until he used the unnecessarily value-laden term "afraid of change". He could have said "wary of change" or something even less judgemental.
He also exaggerates the differences to make a point and comes over as a little too fan-boyish on the whole matter.
I do think there's a core of truth in the observation but he glosses over times where the Rails Team's attitude to change has caused genuine pain to the community as well as times where innovation has come from the Python web-framework community.
"This is pretty interesting if you love new things, love change, and love playing around with stuff. If you don’t and hate the idea of breaking changes, you maybe are better suited with the Python way. But don’t be afraid of breaking changes."
Pythonistas apparently don't like new stuff, change, or hacking around with things. How could anyone with any knowledge of both Ruby and Python write something like that in seriousness?
>Pythonistas apparently don't like new stuff, change, or hacking around with things. How could anyone with any knowledge of both Ruby and Python write something like that in seriousness?
Because he has seen it in the wild, and is evident in the long term behaviour of the two communities?
Pythonistas might like change and new stuff in the things they program WITH python or in other aspects of their lives, but they don't seem to appreciate it as much in their language, libraries and frameworks. Surely not as much as Ruby guys do.
See the quote from the Python core developer above: "We're a conservative community by nature - we generally don't like blazing trails when it comes to language design."
Nuances matter, and being cautious in respect to change is not the same (at all) as being afraid of it. I love Python and don't mind refactoring code from time to time if I perceive a benefit from doing it.
I think the "conservative" feeling comes from the fact that there's no immediate need to rush into Python3. Many changes were backported to version 2 and it has been a useful and dependable language for many years. So we have a good situation in which we can take our time to refactor the code and make the final transition when we feel it's ready.
On the other hand, the OP conflates changes in the language with changes in the applications built with it, which is an error. The Python community is very happy using the language in projects with cutting edge features and uses. You have to look further than just Django, at Scipy or Biopython in order to see that. In that respect the community is more eager of change than the one surrounding Ruby, which is mainly oriented to web development.
He also exaggerates the differences to make a point and comes over as a little too fan-boyish on the whole matter.
I do think there's a core of truth in the observation but he glosses over times where the Rails Team's attitude to change has caused genuine pain to the community as well as times where innovation has come from the Python web-framework community.