Python's popularity

[Ellinghaus, Lance]

> I just look at the stats for comp.lang.python, and i am 9th place for
> most post this month. That makes me completely sad. With just 50 post
> so far, i am showing up on the high count. Sad, very sad. Now i have
> much reason to believe that only 100 or so people follow this list :(.
> Python is slipping. We must try harder, or all of Guido's work will be
> for nothing!

Maybe most of us are doing real things with Python and not spending our
time on the list posting. (I normally do not post on here, but I felt I
had to now).

I have used Python since 0.9.x and have brought it into every
project/contract that I have worked on. The current project I am on
tried to get rid of it and move to Perl for all of my code.. All of
those people are gone and I am still here and so is Python. As a matter
of fact, Python use has grown greatly and we rely on it for so many of
our day to day operations, monitoring, data collection, etc.

Python is not going away just because people are not posting here. Wake
up!

BEA and IBM have converted all of their custom script language support
for WebLogic and WebSphere over to Jython because they felt Python
(interfacing with Java) was the best solution to their script language
issues. Everyone on the project I am on that works with WebLogic and
WebSphere are learning Python so they can work with it. So far, no real
complaints.

People are moving away from Perl to Python for much of their scripting,
but it will take a long time to complete. There is a lot of training,
re-coding, and trying to figure out what the original Perl code did
(ever try to go back and look at Perl code that is 2-3 years old!!!).

Yes, Ruby has taken some of the popularity out of Python, but they are
also hitting different markets. I have also read in a couple of magazine
articles that RoR is losing momentum. From what I have read, RoR is
great to create your first version, but if you need to maintain a large
codebase, it is not as easy as they thought it would be and the reuse
numbers are much lower than Python. But hey, what do I know.... Google,
Yahoo!, YouTube... I know.. tiny little tinker-toy web applications..
right?

Lance Ellinghaus