Does Python compete with Java?

[John Roth]

"kk" <kkennedy65 at yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8b336527.0404051337.51bb4a1b at posting.google.com...
> I read this mailing list fairly often, and I am always amazed at what
> I learn (even not related to Python).  I am relatively new to Python.
> I make my living developing mostly in Java.  Python was a "discovery"
> I made a couple of years ago, and I love the language, but only get to
> use it at home for hobbies.
>
> With all the recent news:
> - ESR tells Sun to open Java, or be relegated into obscurity by
> Python, Ruby, and Perl.
> - Project mono (C# compiler) is touted to be the next great thing in
> Linux, and will be the dominate language. (by it's creator, of
> coarse).
> - This past weekend, Sun signs deal with devil (oops... Microsoft).
> Now Java "openness" seems to have taken a very large step backwards!
>
> I'd like to know if you guys think Python really has a chance to
> compete with Java, .NET, and any other commercially backed language.

That's an interesting question. I presume you mean for
market share in terms of the number of real projects, loc
and all that stuff.

At one time I would have said no, but recently some of the industry
gurus have been questioning whether the additional complexity of
static typing and other Java complexities is paying its weight as compared
to Python, especially when used in a TDD type development environment.

Another thing to consider is that while Sun has a lot wrapped
up in Java, Microsoft does not have the same attitude toward
C#. It may look like it, but their strategic direction would be
satisfied just as much by IronPython as by C# - both run on the
.NET platform, and as long as they take advantage of the native
libraries they will both do as well to lock the user into Windows.
And IronPython seems to be a pretty good performer; at least
as good as Python itself, and accordingly it beats Jython by quite
a margin.

> The reason I ask is I think it is important to have a "popular"
> well-supported Open Source language to compete with the big players.
> PHP seems to have some momentum in popularity, but I much prefer
> Python as a language.  Python has much to offer over Java, VB, etc...
> Maybe the best chance it has is to ride on the coat-tails of .NET
> (Python.NET) and the JVM (Jython).  Interested to hear your comments.

PHP has a considerable mindshare as "the language" to write
a certain class of web application. Beyond that, Perl is, I think,
the dominant scripting language, but it suffers from a perception
that it doesn't scale, and it isn't maintainable unless the development
team is very disciplined in adhering to a sane subset.

I think the next 10 years are going to see a huge shift in the
languages and tools we use regularly.

John Roth