Suitable for Large Applications?!

[Graham Matthews]

David Oppenheimer (davidopp at megsinet.net) wrote:
: 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...
: Do Python programs need to be converted to C or C++ and then compiled to
: be really useful AND run fast?  Or can you get away with creating a
: freestanding  executable by packaging the bytecode in freeze or another
: program like installer?
: What are the real performance issues.

I think you are slightly confused. Whether or not Python is well
suited to large projects has very little to do with performance
issues. Indeed this is true for any language. Large projects are
dominated by software engineering issues, and not performance issues.
I personally don't find Python good for large projects because of
its lack of type checking, and its lack of garbage collection (this
is mitigated to some extent by it's extensive library). Your mileage
may vary though.

graham
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