Difficulty Finding Python Developers

[Donn Cave]

In article <roy-A17A1C.12565615042004 at reader2.panix.com>,
 Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:

> python at rcn.com (Raymond Hettinger) wrote:
> > With a C++ code, it is critical for your programmers to have years of
> > C++ experience.  However, with Python, experienced programmers can get
> > up to speed over a weekend.
> 
> I would put it slightly differently.
> 
> With Python, you can learn a useful subset of the language in a weekend.  
> Control flow, statement syntax, and how to define and use functions.  
> Assuming you're already familiar with the concepts of classes and 
> exceptions (and just need to learn how python implements them), those 
> are probably another weekend.
> 
> What's really cool is that once you've learned some basic subset of the 
> language, it's easy to start using that subset to write useful and 
> correct programs.  They may not be as efficient or sophisticated as they 
> might be if you understood some more advanced topic, but they'll work.
> 
> I think that's one of the things that sets Python apart from C++.  It's 
> difficult to know a subset of C++ and do anything useful (unless you 
> consider C to be a subset of C++).  Memory management is pervasive.  
> Inheritence rules are in your face all the time.  If you declare a 
> constructor incorrectly, even if you only have a single constructor, 
> you'll never be able to make sense of the compiler errors unless you 
> understand polymorphism.  And so on.
> 
> A novice Python programmer may be limited in the things they can do, but 
> what they can do, they can do well.  A novice C++ programmer is 
> dangerous.

I will buy that.  By interesting coincidence, I just heard
this an hour ago from a colleague who recently started on a
new project and had at some early stage given C++ a try.
Luckily he recognized that he was in over his head, and
gave that up.

The other language wasn't Python, though, it was C#.  He was
only interested in C++ for legacy support.

   Donn Cave, donn at u.washington.edu