a different question: can you earn a living with *just* python?

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

John Salerno a écrit :
> It's a nice thought that a person can earn a living programming with 
> Python, which is fun enough to use just for its own sake. But for 
> someone like me (i.e. no programming experience) it's always a little 
> disheartening to see that most (if not all) job descriptions that ask 
> for Python still require some C/C++ or other language knowledge. I 
> suppose this isn't an issue if you studied CS in college, because you 
> would have been exposed to many languages.

You don't need to go to college to learn a programming language. I 
learnt C with the K&R2 and c.l.c. FWIW and IMVHO, there are at least two 
languages any programmer should know : C and Lisp.

> But what if you are an expert Python program and have zero clue about 
> other languages? 

I really doubt one can be an "expert" in any language without at least a 
good knowledge of a half a dozen other languages and some exposure to 
yet another half dozen.

In my current job, I daily use Python, PHP, SQL (in at least three 
flavors), Javascript, bash scripting, regexps (in a few flavors), html 
(yes, I know it's not a 'programming' language), css, half a dozen 
"web-templating" languages and a couple of "configuration" languages 
(apache, make etc). And I sometimes have to read/hack C or Java code.

> Can you still earn a living that way, or do most/all 
> companies require multiple language proficiency?

If a company only ask you for one single language, then you probably 
don't want the job.

> (I suppose this isn't exactly a Python problem,

Well, part of the problem is that once you've learned Python, most other 
languages (at least the 'main stream' ones) feels like a PITA...

> either. I'm sure even 
> companies that don't use Python still use multiple languages.

Most of them, yes. Some don't. Guess where you'll find the best 
programmers...

> Maybe it 
> isn't a good idea to focus entirely on a single language, depending on 
> the job at hand.)

Right.