Python Is Not Java .doc

　　I was recently looking at the source of a wxPython－based GUI application， about 45．5KLOC in size， not counting the libraries used （e．g． Twisted）． The code was written by Java developers who are relatively new to Python， and it suffers from some performance issues （like a 30－second startup time）． In examining the code， I found that they had done lots of things that make sense in Java， but which suck terribly in Python． Not because Python is slower than Java， but because there are easier ways to accomplish the same goals in Python， that wouldnt even be possible in Java． 　　So， the sad thing is that these poor folks worked much， much harder than they needed to， in order to produce much more code than they needed to write， that then performs much more slowly than the equivalent idiomatic Python would． Some examples： 　　A static method in Java does not translate to a Python classmethod． Oh sure， it results in more or less the same effect， but the goal of a classmethod is actually to do something thats usually not even possible in Java （like inheriting a non－default constructor）． The idiomatic translation of a Java static method is usually a module－level function， not a classmethod or staticmethod． （And static final fields should translate to module－level constants．） 　　This isnt much of a performance issue， but a Python programmer who has to work with Java－idiom code like this will be rather irritated by typing Foo．Foo．someMethod when it should just be Foo．someFunction． But do note that calling a classmethod involves an additional memory allocation that calling a staticmethod or function does not． 　　Oh， and all those Foo．Bar．Baz attribute chains dont come for free， either． In Java， those dotted names are looked up by the compiler， so at runtime it really doesnt matter how many of them you have． In Python， the lookups occur at runtime， so each dot counts． （Remember that in Python， Flat is better than nested， although its more related to Readability counts and Simple is bet