Suitable for Large Applications?!

[M.-A. Lemburg]

David Oppenheimer wrote:
> 
> Dear Group,
> 
> I have just started learning Python and would like to hear more
> discussion about its suitability for large multithousand line
> apllications.  On one hand I hear people discussing applications that
> have 10,000 plus lines and on the other I hear people say its really
> only good for small tasks and for modeling.  I'd hate to spend time
> getting real good at this language only to realize that its not well
> suited to large applications...

Python's very well suited for large apps (just look at Zope for
example), it scales well, provides interfaces to many different
application domains and is by far the most readable language
I've come across in years, making it ideal for multi-developer
projects.

> Do Python programs need to be converted to C or C++ and then compiled to
> be really useful AND run fast?

No.

The normal approach is doing all the high level stuff in Python
and then possibly write extensions for low-level needs-to-be-as-fast-
as-possible parts in C/C++.

And if you don't like coding C/C++ yourself, there are quite a lot
of people around here, who would do that part for you... (plugging
my Python services here ;)

>  Or can you get away with creating a
> freestanding  executable by packaging the bytecode in freeze or another
> program like installer?

Yep.

> What are the real performance issues.  When I hear someone say that
> copiling the Python code took hours and compiling equivalent C code took
> seconds, tends to get a newbie like me less enthused.  Should I take
> back my O'Reilly Python book and get a book on learning C++?!

Compiling Python source code to Python byte code is at least as
fast as compiling and linking C code. Even better: since Python
apps are normally organized in small modules, you only need to
translate those that have changed. On to top this, Python takes
care of the process by itself -- no need to explicitly invoke
any compiler.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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