Python Productivity Gain?

[Paul Prescod]

kbass wrote:

> In different articles that I have read, persons have constantly eluded to
> the productivity gains of Python. One person stated that Python's
> productivity gain was 5 to 10 times over Java in some in some cases. The
> strange thing that I have noticed is that there were no examples of this
> productivity gain (i.e., projects, programs, etc.,...).  Can someone give me
> some real life examples of productivity gains using Python as opposed other
> programming languages.

The problem is always: how do you measure/judge this?

Are you going to get the SAME PROGRAMMERS to solve the same problem 
twice? If so, the second language will have a big advantage. Are you 
going to get different programmers? How do you know they are the same skill?

Also: productivity for what? If your Java code is a little bit of glue 
around some pre-existing EJBs then it may have an advantage. If you are 
using Python and Pyrex to wrap C code, then Python will certainly have 
an advantage.

Most Python programmers are speaking about their personal productivity 
gain measured based on "feel". It is possible to do a more formal study 
(dozens of programmers given a variety of tasks) but it would be quite 
expensive. What unbiased source is going to pay for it.

  Paul Prescod