Is Python a commercial proposition ?

[Andrew Cooper]

On 29/07/2012 17:01, lipska the kat wrote:
> Pythoners
> 
> Firstly, thanks to those on the tutor list who answered my questions.
> 
> I'm trying to understand where Python fits into the set of commonly
> available, commercially used languages of the moment.
> 
> My most recent experience is with Java. The last project I was involved
> with included 6775 java source files containing 1,145,785 lines of code.
> How do I know this? because I managed to cobble together a python script
> that walks the source tree and counts the lines of code. It ignores
> block and line comments and whitespace lines so I'm fairly confident
> it's an accurate total. It doesn't include web interface files (mainly
> .jsp and HTML) or configuration files (XML, properties files and what
> have you). In fact it was remarkably easy to do this in python which got
> me thinking about how I could use the language in a commercial environment.
> 
> I was first attracted to python by it's apparent 'Object Orientedness' I
> soon realised however that by looking at it in terms of the language I
> know best I wasn't comparing like with like. Once I had 'rebooted the
> bioware' I tried to approach python with an open mind and I have to say
> it's growing on me.
> 
> The questions I have are ...
> 
> How is python used in the real world.
> What sized projects are people involved with
> Are applications generally written entirely in python or is it more
> often used for a subset of functionality.

Python is used extensively in XenServer, although arguably more of a
glue between components.  The installer is entirely python, whereas the
running product uses it more for scripts and toolstack plugins.

Behind the scenes, our regression test framework is entirely python,
which performs several thousand machine hours of tests a night, from
simple tests such as "verify the installer runs correctly and verify
settings are preserved across upgrade from an older version" to "set up
a pool of 4 servers, kill the master server (by removing its power), and
verify that the remaining 3 fail over and one gets promoted to master"

~Andrew

> 
> I hope this is an acceptable question for this group
> 
> Many thanks
> 
> Lipska
>