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What makes Python Simple?

I consider Python a simple language. Here’s why.

Easy to Read

I can read and understand Python code (unless it’s wilfully perverse). Syntactic whitespace and the associated removal of punctuation results in a regular, open layout. The combination of built in containers, extensive standard libraries and high level constructs allow for clear, compact code: code which fits in your head.

Easy to Write

I can write Python code which is free of syntax errors and which does what I want. Of course it helps that I’ve been actively using the language for 15 years, but I’ve been using C++ for longer and still make mistakes with it: ask me to declare a pointer to a member function, for example, or to knock up a variadic template function, and I’ll need a moment or two.

Transparent

I also consider C a simple language. C offers a transparent abstraction of a register machine, with a stack, a heap, and addressable memory. If you can imagine the operation of such a machine, you can figure out C. Python is less transparent but reveals its workings if pressed. Dicts form a part of the language seen by users, and under the hood they provide the dynamic context which supports a running program. The read-eval-print loop makes it easy to poke and reshape your program. You can disassemble code to see what the virtual machine sees.

Consistent improvement

The language has got better since I first started using it. It has also got bigger, and this growth would, at first, seem at odds with simplicity. However, consider — as an example — the point when list comprehensions were introduced. Language support for building a list from an iterable results in compact declarative code. Simple code. What’s more, the square brackets which now delimit list comprehensions are the same square brackets that were previously used to delimit lists. The syntax may have been new but it didn’t surprise. Now consider the introduction of set and dict comprehensions, which follow logically and naturally from list comprehensions, almost as if they were discovered rather than invented.

There are many other examples where additions to the language have unified and simplified.

Vision

I’m not a Python insider and cannot comment on the exact balance of benevolence and dictatorship which goes into the language enhancement process. I would say Python doesn’t suffer from being designed by a committee. It sticks to its strengths and its direction, to its vision.