Python is just as good as C++ for real apps

[Donovan Rebbechi]

In article <nEl38.206$DT5.96392 at news.uswest.net>, Kevin Altis wrote:
> Yes, it does need to be said. Are there more C++ programmers than Python
> programmers? Are there more Java programmers than Python programmers? Are
> there more Perl programmes than Python programmers? Are there more Visual
> Basic programmers than Python programmers? The answer to all of these
> questions is yes. Do you want to see more Python books? 

Honestly, I couldn't care less. There are a number of python books, and the
reference documentation is very good. I dived straight into the Python API 
to work with the nuts and bolts of the system while giving myself a crash
course, and the online API documentation made that a very pleasurable 
experience.

> Do you want to see
> Python covered as extensively in the press as Java or C# (the deluge is
> coming)? 

It's be nice, but again, to be honest, I don't care that much. I don't
like the idea of it losing out to an inferior, or less portable technology,
but aside from that concern, not really.

> Do you want to see more Python programming jobs available? Do you

Not really.

> want to see increased benefits from your Python knowledge? Then for every

Hahahahaha ... who cares ? "Python knowledge", "C++ knowledge", or any other
kind of language specific knowledge is almost worthless. As is a programmer
whose capacity for abstraction is so limited that they allow themselves to
degenerate into a (foo) programmer, instead of a programmer.  If you've
mastered the paradigms, picking up a new language is easy. I don't learn
languages for immediate commercial benefit. I'm studying ML right now, and I
haven't seen any ML jobs in the paper -- my motive is to learn another way of
looking at programming problems.

> Python's popularity is hampered by the perception that it is not a good
> language for many tasks, including building standalone GUI applications.

Well that's just dumb. Their loss, I suppose. It'd help if Python would
standardise on something besides Tk. (WxWindows, perhaps. My preference is
for Qt, but it's not free on non-UNIX platforms)

> Whenever somebody proposes that an application be built using C/C++, C#,
> Java, Visual Basic, etc. and Python isn't even on the list of candidates
> that means Python does not have the mindshare it should. The perception that
> Python is "just a scripting language" and that somehow scripting is inferior
> to using a "real language" is just plain wrong.

Python is not statically typed. This is either a strength or a liability,
depending on the situation.

-- 
Donovan