Visual Basic - Python compare

[achrist at easystreet.com]

When attempting to introduce a new programming language into a 
corporate shop, you've got to look at it from the manager's
side.  

1. There is a tremendous potential downside to having any language
in your shop if you have fewer than 3 fluent developers.

2. If you introduce a new language, you hope that it will succeed and
be used in your shop for 5-10 years.

3. Multiply (1) times (2) and you see that the decision to introduce
a new language is well into a seven-figure $US investment.

4. Seven-figure $US is well beyond the spending authority of most
managers who know anything much about programming.  In many companies
the IS director can't spend that much without approval of the CEO and/or
board of directors.

5. A relatively low-level manager might get his company into such an
investment without explicit approval by slipping in a new language,
but the manager will not be very comfortable doing so if there is any
significant downside potential.

6. The way to counter all of this in favor of Python is to make the
case that fewer lines of code result in much lower maintenance cost,
so that those who look beyond the short-term see benefits and not
costs.  One thing that might be interesting to try would be to take
a VB application from 1995 or so (16-bit Win 3.1) and see how easy it
is to get it running under the current version of VB, ie VB.Net.  Then
take a python version 1.4 app and bring it up to verson 2.3.  I believe
that python will look pretty good in this comparison. 


Al