Is Python a commercial proposition ?

[Aled Evans]

On Sunday, July 29, 2012 5:01:00 PM UTC+1, lipska the kat wrote:
> Pythoners
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> 
> 
> Firstly, thanks to those on the tutor list who answered my questions.
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> 
> 
> I'm trying to understand where Python fits into the set of commonly 
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> available, commercially used languages of the moment.
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> 
> 
> My most recent experience is with Java. The last project I was involved 
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> with included 6775 java source files containing 1,145,785 lines of code. 
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> How do I know this? because I managed to cobble together a python script 
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> that walks the source tree and counts the lines of code. It ignores 
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> block and line comments and whitespace lines so I'm fairly confident 
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> it's an accurate total. It doesn't include web interface files (mainly 
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> .jsp and HTML) or configuration files (XML, properties files and what 
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> have you). In fact it was remarkably easy to do this in python which got 
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> me thinking about how I could use the language in a commercial environment.
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> 
> 
> I was first attracted to python by it's apparent 'Object Orientedness' I 
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> soon realised however that by looking at it in terms of the language I 
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> know best I wasn't comparing like with like. Once I had 'rebooted the 
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> bioware' I tried to approach python with an open mind and I have to say 
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> it's growing on me.
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> 
> 
> The questions I have are ...
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> 
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> How is python used in the real world.
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> What sized projects are people involved with
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> Are applications generally written entirely in python or is it more 
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> often used for a subset of functionality.
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> 
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> I hope this is an acceptable question for this group
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> 
> 
> Many thanks
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> 
> 
> Lipska
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> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Lipska the Kat: Troll hunter, sandbox destroyer
> 
> and farscape dreamer of Aeryn Sun

If you check Google's job listings:

http://www.google.com/about/jobs/teams/engineering/

On the software side of things you'll see very few listings that don't ask for coding in Python as a requirement or, at the very least, an advantageous skill to have.

I'd say slowly, but surely, many people are coming around the fact that Python is not only as powerful as Java and other high-level languages, but it's also easier to read and write. That, and people (that I've spoken to, at least), find it far more fun to code in Python!