REPOST: Re: Python Popularity: Questions and Comments

[Alex Martelli]

"Cameron Laird" <claird at starbase.neosoft.com> wrote in message
news:889C110F5BBBFAFD.A03B35C232EA2760.70B0892CB9479323 at lp.airnews.net...
> In article <u2oo84bc39ujb7 at corp.supernews.com>,
> Patrick <rpm1deletethis at frontiernet.net> wrote:
    ...
> >They DO ask what compilers and linkers we use!  They even
> >make suggestions!  We make very customized software.
> >Some customers write parts of their own code through
> >'user exits'.
    ...
> There are times when this is an advantage for Python,
> for it is a FAR superior "extension language" to Java
> and C.  While many aspects of software engineering are
> best seen at this point as matters of taste, Python's
> superiority in this regard is, I argue, a matter of
> objective record.

Maybe, but Python could be usable as an extension language
even if the application was implemented otherwise, in the
right environments (JVM: Jython always usable where Java
is; Microsoft COM/Automation).


> That's no guarantee of customer acceptance, of course.

Yep.  If you release only under Windows, and user
customization is important, it would be folly not to
have an excellent COM Object Model exposed: this way,
customers can customize in Python, Visual Basic, Delphi,
C++, or whatever else is close to their heart.  If you
release under the JVM, then at least both Java and
Jython are usable.  Other environments have other such
possibilities (alas, maybe not as mature), such as Corba
bindings.  If you're not in the business of selling
programming languages, but applications, and yet those
applications are often used as platforms for customer
development, then putting some effort into language
independence may widen your customer appeal at not too
high a price.


Alex

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From: "Alex Martelli" <aleax at aleax.it>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
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