Is Python a commercial proposition ?

[Rodrick Brown]

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 29, 2012, at 12:07 PM, lipska the kat <lipska at yahoo.co.uk> 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.

Python is a glue language much like Perl was 10 years ago. Until the
GIL is fixed I doubt anyone will seriously look at Python as an option
for large enterprise standalone application development.

I work in financials and the majority of our apps are developed in C++
and Java yet all the tools that startup, deploy and conduct rigorous
unit testing are implemented in Python or Shell scripts that wrap
Python scripts.

Python definitely has its place in the enterprise however not so much
for serious stand alone app development.

I'm starting to see Python used along side many statistical and
analytical tools like R, SPlus, and Mathlab for back testing and
prototype work, in a lot of cases I've seen quants and traders
implement models in Python to back test and if successful converted to
Java or C++.