Python Usage Statistics

[Jeff Shannon]

beliavsky at aol.com wrote:

>anandpillai at letterboxes.org (Anand Pillai) wrote in message news:<bba535b4.0408310322.248af2b0 at posting.google.com>...
>  
>
>>... I thought it would be a good idea to present a number, a
>>round-about figure on the approximate *actual* usage of Python out
>>there in number of developers and/or installations.
>>    
>>
>
>See SkillMarket at http://mshiltonj.com/sm/categories/languages/ .
>Polling jobs listed at dice.com , the # of job openings by language on
>9/1/2004 were (in descending order)
>  
>

But note that job openings don't necessarily accurately represent 
language *usage*, they only represent *unsatisfied demand* for 
competency in that language.  One could argue, with some justification, 
that there's few job openings requesting programmers familiar with 
Python because a good programmer can become productive in Python so 
quickly -- why take months to hire a Python guy when an existing 
employee can *become* a Python guy in a couple weeks?  It also doesn't 
reflect the usage of Python for small projects, incidental scripting 
tasks, etc., where there isn't a need for a full-time employee to be 
working on that particular project.

Jeff Shannon
Technician/Programmer
Credit International