Errors and missing info in Introduction to Python

Contributors
1

Found some serious errors and missing info in this and this article:

1. “Python officially surpassed JavaScript as the most popular language on GitHub in 2024.”
True. But as of the most recent GitHub data, that ranking has changed, with TypeScript now ahead. Why are we framing such sentences which need to be updated constantly, instead of simply “Python is one of the most popular programming languages”?

2. Performance limitations are not mentioned
How can we forget that Python is significantly slower than compiled languages (C/C++, Rust, Go).

3. “The best way to install Python on Windows and Mac is to download the installer from the official Python website.”
“Best” way? Really? Maybe the intention was to imply “easiest” way; and how do you even compare installation methods and say one is “better” than the other. I’m on Mac and use Homebrew to install much of the tools instead of from their website. How’s that a problem?

4. (For Linux) “search online for the recommended way to install Python for your distro.”
Now I understand not everything can be covered in one article, but why is the installation process of mac and Windows written in much detail but for Linux it’s basically “search and do yourself”?

5. Virtual environments and pip completely missing.
Shouldn’t there be a dedicated lecture for this too?

6. More use cases
Didn’t mention that Python is also heavily used for:

  • DevOps (CI/CD scripts)

  • Backend services

  • Testing (pytest)

  • System administration

2

Honestly, this is so difficult to actually remark upon in a uniform way. There are ways to get around traditional performance issues and get C speeds these days. People run software written in Python on supercomputers these days and see very good performance (usually calling through to C or using JiT).

1 Like
3

Because the alternative is to list a bunch of different package manager commands for a bunch of different distros.

1 Like
4

there is this issue with the same content Introduction to Python - Errors and Missing Info · Issue #64860 · freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp · GitHub

we have started addressing a couple of things, but I am unsure if others fit for our curriculum

5

Yes, that issue was opened by me.

6

But other people don’t know of the existence of the issue, so I brought it up.

1 Like