How popular is Python, anyway? (was: Long Live Python!)

[Per Abrahamsen]

[ FUT: gnu.misc.discuss ]

philh at comuno.freeserve.co.uk (phil hunt) writes:

> If you think that facts are "crap" and hard statistical analysis
> is "flamebait" then all I can say is that it is up to others to
> decide, on the basis of your posts, how "crappy" you are.

Croosposting between advocacy groups like gnu.misc.discuss and
comp.lang.java.advocacy, and technical groups like comp.lang.python,
comp.lang.c, comp.lang.perl.misc is probably not the smartest thing to
do, if one want a serious discussion.

However, the statistical data itself is worthy of discussion,
preferably in a language neutral group.  I have therefore directed
followups to gnu.misc.discuss.  I'll not respond to any crossposted
answers. 

And obvious potential problem is that the data is based on a project
count from a database with many unfinished beginner projects.  I
suspect a count of developers or lines of code would put e.g. C and
Perl higher, and Python and Java lower, as the later have a reputation
for being more beginner friendly.

With regard to the "age" analysis, the trend is that young languages
take marketshare from old languages.  Anything else would have been a
big surprise, bordering to impossible.