Difficulty Finding Python Developers

[Peter Hansen]

A B Carter wrote:
> 2 - Start setting expectations with management. For example, explain
> that if there are not a lot of Python programmers it's because it's a
> new language that
> it builds on the strengths of langauges such as C++, Java and perl
> while avoiding their weaknesses. 

If I were his management, here I might say, "But I thought you
said Python was older than Java!  If it's so good, why hasn't it
caught on more than Java?" or "How can it build on the strengths
of Java when it's older?"

> Mention that when you do find a
> Python programmer he'll probably be better than your average perl or
> Java programmer. 

And here I would ask, "Why do you say that?  If there are so
few of them around, how could anyone know whether they're better
or worse?  And wouldn't the best programmers be using the most
popular languages, because they would make more money that way?"

 > Make the argument that you get what you pay for, and
> the extra expense of Python is worth it.

"I thought you said Python was free... now you're telling me it's
going to cost us more than the other languages because it's so hard
to hire anyone who knows it?"

> 3 - With 2 out of the way consider rethinking how this three month
> project should be done. If Python talent is scarce then it might make
> more sense to develop in-house talent. This may no longer be a three
> month project but down the road your in a more solid position, which
> ,if you think about it, is a basic part of what Python is all about.

Good advice here, IMHO. :-)  This is what we did when first considering
Python, by the way, and I had a co-op student learn the langauge and
develop a GPIB interface with a wrapper around a DLL using "calldll".
It took him about a week to learn Python, about a week to get a basic
calldll wrapper working, about a week to implement a simple RF test
for one of the devices the company made (controlling two signal
generators and a spectrum analyzer) and about a week to figure out how
to slap a simple GUI on it using Tkinter.

I wonder if this "three month project" has much more than that in it...

-Peter