Talking to marketing people about Python

[gregarican]

Lots of folks have pointed out large scale Python success stories
ranging from NASA to Google to Amazon. Such companies should make for
good PHB fodder in your argument. Most likely if the product manager is
just a drone you can throw in some other acceptable norm. Since
IronPython and Microsoft's .NET CLR are bound you can state that Python
is a language that runs on .NET.

Kind of like another language I work with when I get a chance. I like
Smalltalk and there's a variant that runs in the new Microsoft Vista
WPE environment (http://vistascript.net). If this was a mature option
and if I was to pitch this to a PHB or some other corporate tool I
would classify Smalltalk as an option that sits atop the cutting edge
Microsoft WPE framework.

These in-routes seem to be ways that dynamic/scripting/fringe languages
are gaining traction in larger organizations. Just wrap them up into a
Java VM, .NET CLR, etc. and off you go :-)

Roy Smith wrote:
> I'm working on a product which for a long time has had a Perl binding for
> our remote access API.  A while ago, I wrote a Python binding on my own,
> chatted it up a bit internally, and recently had a (large) customer enquire
> about getting access to it.
>
> I asked for permission to distribute the Python binding, and after a few
> weeks of winding its way through the corporate bureaucracy I got an email
> from a product manager who wants to meet with me to "understand the market
> demand for Python API before we commercialize it".
>
> Can anybody suggest some good material I can give to him which will help
> explain what Python is and why it's a good thing, in a way that a
> marketing/product management person will understand?