does anybody earn a living programming in python?

[wesley chun]

> From: "OKB (not okblacke)" <brenNOSPAMbarn at NObrenSPAMbarn.net>
> Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 04:04:02 GMT
>
>> - at yahoo, we developed yahoo!mail in python (and some C++)
>> - at synarc, i wrote software for doctors in python (and some C)
>> - at ironport, most everything is in python (and some C, PyRex)
>
>     	This is interesting to me in that all these jobs also involve C.
> I'm not the original poster, but I'd be interested to hear about people
> who make a living programming Python WITHOUT knowing C.


you make a good point, however, when you have to write an extension
(performance, protect source code, library interface, etc.), you must
write it in the natively-supported language in which the
implementation of Python you're using is compiled in. for (C)Python,
it's C/C++, Java for Jython, and C#/VB.NET for IronPython.

if you have been successful at building projects completely in pure
Python, that's great, but you're limited in that you won't be able to
take advantage of the benefits of extensions or necessarily be able to
hook up to native libraries that don't already have a Python adapter
written for them. for the past employment i listed, the primary use of
C was either an extension or a library adapter. of course, i never
claimed above to have written any of that C code. ;-)

my final thought is that you cannot truly appreciate a tool like
Python until you've been in the trenches with C and done all that
stuff that is now a "waste of time."

cheers,
-- wesley
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Core Python Programming", Prentice Hall, (c)2007,2001
    http://corepython.com

wesley.j.chun :: wescpy-at-gmail.com
python training and technical consulting
cyberweb.consulting : silicon valley, ca
http://cyberwebconsulting.com