[BangPypers] Wall street may embrace Python

[Noufal Ibrahim]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 4:44 PM, Dhananjay Nene
<dhananjay.nene at gmail.com> wrote:
[..]
> Apologies at persisting in this .. but I do think it is a very
> unconventional usecase for programs to be used as specifications.
>
> The scenario here is that the program (as in the python code) is the means
> of communication  - it is *not necessarily* a runtime construct.
> Organisation A models its understanding of the various fiscal implications
> and publishes as a appendix of python code in a document. This document is
> filed with SEC and then finds its way to Organisation B. In a very strange
> situation here "the code is the specification of understanding" and replaces
> "english legalese as a specification of understanding".
[..]

Which is why I feel there is opportunity here.

This is not Python specific. I daresay they chose Python for it's
simple syntax and lack of braces.

However, once you have a specification of a process in precise
executable format, it's possible to do this without involving human
beings that was not possible with an English specification accompanied
by a dude with a laptop and an excel sheet. Admittedly, he's more
comfortable with the latter but if his bread and butter depend on the
former, I think he'd change.

The specification can be used to decide automatically if certain
processes are compliant, it can be used to automatically create
interfaces that allow people to work only within the constraints of
the workflow etc.

Python's introspective nature makes it easy to play with these
specifications to tie it up into the larger machinery of the
organisation and so I think apart from the clarity, there's a lot of
potential for automation and removing clerical jobs.

As for analysis, I'm sure some company will come up with an app that
can automatically read out specifications from the website and present
them in "Excel like" formats that you can play with.


-- 
~noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in