Why Python?

[Steve Holden]

"Patrick K. O'Brien" <pobrien at orbtech.com> wrote ...
> I've added a Python advocacy page to our company website and I'm looking
for
> suggestions for improvements or additional material. Take a look at
> http://www.orbtech.com/why_python.htm and let me know what you think. The
> intended audience is a business person who wants to know why they should
> support Python in their organization. So the writing needs to be as
> non-technical as possible. Thanks.
>
Patrick:

I really like the page. I think it summarizes a lot of what we (the Python
community) appreciate about our chosen tool. About the only improvement I
would suggest relates to your remarks about the intended audience.

We technical types have a tendency to concentrate on features, which we
understand because of our enormous brains :-). The business person, however,
is more concerned with the benefits ("what's in it for me?") - hence their
enormous wallets :-(. I would therefore suggest that in your "What Makes
Python Special?" section you lead with the benefits rather than the
features. Mostly this just requires a change of emphasis, so rather than
saying

"""
Interpreted: Compiling programs is painfully time-consuming. Python programs
are interpreted, allowing individual program files to be modified and used
immediately, without a lengthy and error-prone compilation.
"""

you might consider

"""
Faster testing and development: Many other commonly used languages must be
"compiled" into machine instructions each time they have been changed,
making testing a time-consuming process. Python programs use
"interpretation", allowing much faster testing and reducing overall
development times considerably.
"""

for example.

and-of-course-add-steve-holden-to-the-list-of-users-ly y'rs  - steve
--
http://www.holdenweb.com/