Typed Python?

[Paul Prescod]

Arthur wrote:

>...
> We judge a programming language with respect to its use in the "real
> world", with Python and Lisp and Scheme lovers feeling obliged to
> point to their languages use in the real world. Real world seeming to
> mean - more or less - the business world. By employing the highly
> skilled programmer, equipped with the just right tool (be it Python or
> Scheme or Lisp or whatever) someone is  finding competitive advantage,
> and thereby making more than ordinary profits, perhaps building an
> empire or two.  
> 
> But it is quite unlikely that someone is the programmer.Who brings
born aptitudes, years of study and experience, etc, to the table, and
is probably in and out on a contract basis, having earning subsistance
for a bit of time, perhaps, in fact, by accomplishing something of
brilliance.

At the Vancouver Python Workshop there will be a talk from a guy who was 
the co-foudner and first programmer at a company. The company was built 
around his Python code (and presumably the business acumen of the other 
guy) and now (around 5 years later) has 80 employees and is expanding so 
quickly that they can't handle all of the requests pounding on the door. 
He says: "he doesn't see how he could have done it without Python." Greg 
Stein says the same of eShop. Paul Graham of YahooStore. They could all 
be wrong but I think that there is an interesting phenomenon there...

I rather expect that as cofounder of a company that did so well so 
quickly, he's earning more than substinence these days...it can happen.

  Paul Prescod