Tagged Questions

121
votes
3answers
10k views

Why is there no GIL in the Java Virtual Machine? Why does Python need one so bad?

I'm hoping someone can provide some insight as to what's fundamentally different about the Java Virtual Machine that allows it to implement threads nicely without the need for a Global Interpreter ...
114
votes
9answers
4k views

Seeking clarification on apparent contradictions regarding weakly typed languages

I think I understand strong typing, but every time I look for examples for what is weak typing I end up finding examples of programming languages that simply coerce/convert types automatically. For ...
108
votes
13answers
53k views

Choosing Java vs Python on Google App Engine

Currently Google App Engine supports both Python & Java. Java support is less mature. However, Java seems to have a longer list of libraries and especially support for Java bytecode regardless of ...
83
votes
14answers
42k views

What CMS runs on Google App Engine?

Is it possible to deploy any CMS (Content Management System) using Google App Engine? Wikipedia lists 4 Python CMSes and one of them is Django based. Do you know any way to make any of them to work ...
64
votes
12answers
11k views

How can I build a model to distinguish tweets about Apple (Inc.) from tweets about apple (fruit)?

See below for 50 tweets about "apple." I have hand labeled the positive matches about Apple Inc. They are marked as 1 below. Here are a couple of lines: 1|“@chrisgilmer: Apple targets big business ...
58
votes
9answers
5k views

How to reliably guess the encoding between MacRoman, CP1252, Latin1, UTF-8, and ASCII

At work it seems like no week ever passes without some encoding-related conniption, calamity, or catastrophe. The problem usually derives from programmers who think they can reliably process a “text” ...
57
votes
4answers
14k views

Does python have an equivalent to Java Class.forName()?

I have the need to take a string argument and create a class in python. In Java, I would use Class.forName().newInstance(). Is there an equivalent in python? Thanks for the responses. To answer ...
51
votes
10answers
30k views

How can I download all emails with attachments from Gmail?

How do I connect to Gmail and determine which messages have attachments? I then want to download each attachment, printing out the Subject: and From: for each message as I process it.
47
votes
5answers
38k views

Python - Create a list with initial capacity

Code like this often happens: l = [] while foo: #baz l.append(bar) #qux This is really slow if you're about to append thousands of elements to your list, as the list will have to ...
44
votes
5answers
2k views

How to approach number guessing game(with a twist) algorithm?

I am learning programming (python and algo’s) and was trying to work on a project that I find interesting. I have created a few basic python scripts but I’m not sure how to approach a solution to a ...
43
votes
8answers
9k views

Java “Virtual Machine” vs. Python “Interpreter” parlance?

It's seems rare to read of a Python "virtual machine" while in Java "virtual machine" is used all the time. Both interpret byte codes, why call one a virtual machine and the other an interpreter?
42
votes
7answers
10k views

Which programming languages can I use on Android Dalvik?

In theory, Dalvik executes any virtual machine byte code, created for example with the compilers of AspectJ ColdFusion Clojure Groovy JavaFX Script JRuby Jython Rhino Scala Are there already ...
41
votes
35answers
14k views

Why learn Perl, Python, Ruby if the company is using C++, C# or Java as the application language?

I wonder why would a C++, C#, Java developer want to learn a dynamic language? Assuming the company won't switch its main development language from C++/C#/Java to a dynamic one what use is there for ...
38
votes
8answers
3k views

As a Java programmer learning Python, what should I look out for?

Much of my programming background is in Java, and I'm still doing most of my programming in Java. However, I'm starting to learn Python for some side projects at work, and I'd like to learn it as ...
38
votes
6answers
2k views

Converting to and from Hindu calendar

How can I convert unix time to Hindu calendar­Wikipedia time and the other way round in php, Perl or Python or Java? I know I can convert to Hebrew and Jewish. But Hindu is not an option. To be ...

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