I have used Python for a rather long time (I think 1997 when I was 17 was when I first used it). As the the writer of the article stated Python is awesome for writing "tools" and throughout my career I have used it for such.
However I have used Python also for big projects and that is where its gets a little messy. I know I am going to get down-voted to kingdom come but I think Java is a better language for big projects mostly because of the static typing (try renaming a class in Python compared to Java).
Modern Java is for sure more verbose than Python and more complicated but the languages are extremely similar (Guido has even take some of the design consistency from Java for Python 3.0).
The reason I bring it up is Java is very often in various circles crapped on to no end. The reality its basically just more verbose Python. Not to mention Java offers an introduction to Parametric/algebraic typing (generics) and more sophisticated concurrency (futures ... yes actors are better but python really has neither).
Just replace Java with Haskell, and you've got yourself a nicer Python replacement.
Less code than either Java or Python, far more compile-time guarantees than either, and nearly as fast as Java when speed matters (speed takes a bit more effort in Haskell than in Java, but compared to Python, it is a no-brainer).
In my mind--probably not the majority opinion, but so be it--it's really the opposite: Python is a dynamically typed Java. So it's not that Java has been underrated but rather that Python has been overrated. I do not like working with either.
Also, I'm not quite sure what generics have to do with algebraic types.
However I have used Python also for big projects and that is where its gets a little messy. I know I am going to get down-voted to kingdom come but I think Java is a better language for big projects mostly because of the static typing (try renaming a class in Python compared to Java).
Modern Java is for sure more verbose than Python and more complicated but the languages are extremely similar (Guido has even take some of the design consistency from Java for Python 3.0).
The reason I bring it up is Java is very often in various circles crapped on to no end. The reality its basically just more verbose Python. Not to mention Java offers an introduction to Parametric/algebraic typing (generics) and more sophisticated concurrency (futures ... yes actors are better but python really has neither).