Visual Basic - Python compare

[Kent]

"Roman Yakovenko" <romany at actimize.com> wrote in message news:<mailman.1051603275.12037.python-list at python.org>...
> ). I decided to propose 
> python instead of VB. For this purpose I wrote small VB-Python compare.

Managers always fear new development tools because of the productivity
hit while we get up to speed on them.  Here's how I'm starting to
convince them that Python is a good tool (and therefore worth the
investment of time):

1.  Show that Python can be used to implement our requirements.  This
shows that Python is right for _that_ job.

2.  Show that Python can be used to implement anything that can be
implemented in the other environments.  This shows that it's not going
to be a long-term hinderance, and that it's a real language, not just
a toy.  The available GUI toolkits, and the immense standard library
(with all its Internet protocol support) really show this point.

By this time, you'll have shown that Python is a viable development
tool, on par with all the others.  Now that you've leveled the playing
field, show off some of its unique benefits:

3.  For many reasons, Python is vastly more productive than other
environments.  It's refreshing to use.  It's rich syntax and data
types turn 10 lines of code into 3.  It's standard library (mentioned
above, but now it really stands out) provides access to 95% of system
services you'll ever need in developing systems and applications.

4.  Python is cross-platform.  And, unlike that other popular
(snobbish) cross-platform language,  it really supports each platform
it's on.  The Win32 extensions make Python so much better a
development environment on Windows than Java.  I can actually use
those rich COM interfaces, and Windows system services.  Byte-compiled
files are still binary-compatible across platforms.

5.  Python's agility is one of its biggest values.  You can write huge
full-blown, complex applications, that integrate services from all
over the local machine, and from the network.  You can then write the
automated test scripts for your system (using the cool standard
library).

6.  Oh, yeah.  Python is free and open.

7.  In the interest of being honest, Python support in development
tools is weak.  There are many IDEs for Python, most of which are
immature, or are Python-only.  What needs to happen is for full
support of Python to be built into existing IDEs.  There's Visual
Studio .NET support, but boy, it's expensive.  NetBeans and Eclipse
could really help us out here if we could get more than just cursory
support for Python in those otherwise great environments.