In the early days of C, you’d occasionally see someone — probably a former Pascal programmer — write something like this: #define BEGIN { #define END } This would usually initiate complaints about ...

This article is adapted from an edition of our Off the Charts newsletter originally published in October 2021. Off the Charts is a weekly, subscriber-only guide to The Economist’s award-winning data ...

Python is a general-purpose programming language for Web and desktop development. Python works well on both of these platforms because of its flexibility, facilitated by its extensive list of built-in ...