alt Hacker NewsYou've missed the joke, or maybe you weren't old enough to be learning Python during Java's heyday.
The joke is that people wanting to write Python like Java - with an implicit reference to an object's instance - would attempt to import Java's `this` keyword.
Instead of getting Java-like behavior, they're presented with the Zen of Python. You wouldn't be wrong to think that it was as much a commentary on other popular languages of the day as it was a guiding ethos of Python itself.
"Beautiful is better than ugly. Explicit is better than implicit."
Replies
wk_end • today at 8:00 AM
c.f. what happens when you try `from __future__ import braces`
Well that's embarrassing. I learned Java in 1996 in college. I was introduced to Python (1.5.2) at a startup in 2000. The startup was probably equally split between Java and Python code. I know the "this" module didn't exist till around 2004, but somehow in all these years I never made the connection and did indeed miss the joke. (But, as far as I can remember, I never accidentally attempted to import this in Python, and wasn't aware newbies did that.)
(Aside, I've essentially used Python almost exclusively since I picked it up. It's served me well in my career. I never have cared for Java.)
Anywho... thank you for explaining the joke that's now old enough to drink, but has eluded me all this time. :-)