Is Python Dead? Long Live Python!

[Peter Hansen]

Lindstrom Greg - glinds wrote:
> 
> This is quite true in my experience, too.  I work in an IT shop that simply
> refuses to recognize Python (and Perl) because most of the people in
> leadership will not accept it.  The major strikes?
> 
> 1. It's Free.  
> 2. If my boss had to code in C/C++, it's should be good enough for me
> (dammit!).  
> 3. No Support!  
> 4. To easy to understand. 
> 5. A fear of maintainability. 
[details snipped]

The real problem, as I have come to understand in my successful effort to 
bring Python into my current employer's company in a big way (sixteen
programmers using it for a wide variety of applications and utilities) 
is management COWARDICE.  

It's not that they don't buy the argument that free software could 
save money, or that code readability is a good thing, or that c.l.p 
can provide better support than any commercial organization ever does.
They understand all that at some level, but have a mental - no, make that
political - problem accepting it and acting on it.

To allow Python a role in the organization would be to assume a leadership
position.  To take a risk (from the standpoint of their current ignorance)
that they might make a mistake.  To show some vision.

These are not things most managers readily do.  Their job safety lies
in following, not leading.  Calling them "the people in leadership" is
an insult to real leaders everywhere.

I recommend a persistent onslaught of griping about current tools,
constant pointing out of how superior Python would be in a given problem
situation, projections that a new development could take M months of work
in a more typical language but only N months were it written in Python,
whining at the difficulty of maintaining code in another language,
and periodic forwarding of links and articles showing how companies
with more cohones than yours are achieving significant successes with
Python (especially any near competitors).

Good luck! :-)
-- 
----------------------
Peter Hansen, P.Eng.
peter at engcorp.com