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

[Carl J. Van Arsdall]

John Salerno wrote:
> 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.
>
>   
Well, the thing is, once you can program in one language you can pretty 
much move around to other languages pretty easily (unless they are 
twisted, but rarely have I been asked to use something crazy).  At my 
job I've written about 30 lines of C code in the 2 years I've been 
here.  The rest has been almost entirely Python.  Occasionally other 
languages come up, you just kinda do what you need to on the fly or get 
a book when you get stuck.  There's so many examples on the web you can 
go from zero to productive fairly quickly.  Of course with anything it 
takes time to get good with a language, I'm not say you could be an 
expert but you should be able to look at some C examples and gather most 
of what you need to construct a simple program.  From there hit your 
references up and go for it. 


> But what if you are an expert Python program and have zero clue about 
> other languages? Can you still earn a living that way, or do most/all 
> companies require multiple language proficiency?
>   
My team mates know strictly Python (and a little shell) and do just 
fine.  I know very few programmers who truly only know a single 
language.  In fact the fact that I know Python has gotten me calls from 
several recruiters recently.  Seems like python is on the up and up.   
Anyhow, the longer you code the more languages you'll come into contact 
with.  It just usually works out that way.  Between school and work I've 
learned Python, Perl, C, C++, Fortran, and Java.  I was only taught C, 
once I had those concepts down I found usually I just needed to learn 
the syntax. 

> (I suppose this isn't exactly a Python problem, either. I'm sure even 
> companies that don't use Python still use multiple languages. Maybe it 
> isn't a good idea to focus entirely on a single language, depending on 
> the job at hand.)
>   
Be familiar with lots of tools, get good at the ones you feel will help 
you get the job done.  No doubt you'll be most proficient in the one you 
need to use the most, but you'll always need to move around, its 
definitely a good job skill to have.



-- 

Carl J. Van Arsdall
cvanarsdall at mvista.com
Build and Release
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