Python's popularity statistics

[Chad Netzer]

On Wednesday 11 December 2002 17:24, Mike Dean wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 14:49:11 -0600 Aaron K. Johnson 
<akjmicro at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > python 9647
> > clipper 8960
>
> Now this is what I find real interesting.  Clipper, right below
> Python? I thought Clipper was quite dying, in this client-server
> world...  does it still have that big a following?

The most important step in any statistical analysis (except perhaps 
for gross accuracy of the numbers themselves), is interpretation.  
Drawing any subjective conclusions from these numbers, such as 
"popularity of language", etc. is essentially meaningless.  Others 
have already pointed out that "popularity of language" and 
"activity of newsgroup" could be inversely correlated, as far as we 
know.  Furthermore, we have no knowledge of how on-topic any 
specific newsgroup is (not from the raw numbers anyway).

-- 
Bay Area Python Interest Group - http://www.baypiggies.net/

Chad Netzer
cnetzer at mail.arc.nasa.gov