Suffering For Your Art

[Kevin Douglas]

> > Is it just me or is there a lot of animosity towards Python as
> > a serious programming language ...
>
> When I first started looking at Python a few years back I had to
> get past the mental block that Python was a "scripting" language
> and was therefore inherently less powerful than the more
> traditional "compiled" languages (e.g. C/C++ or Fortran).

This is the first time I have ever posted to this list, in over
a year of being subscribed.

I've built and/or worked on systems that are scalable to the level 
of billions of transactions per month with Python and C and ASM.

The premise is simple - Python is an AUTOMATION and PROTOTYPING
language.  You use it to automate either administrative tasks,
management tasks, monitoring and quality assurance tasks,
data aggregation or analysis tasks, or - more powerfully -
programming tasks (self replicating code, code management, etc).

It's quite easy to build an advertising exchange and collaborative
filtering system such as DoubleClick has (even better than theirs,
actually), or BlueFly or any other such company - in about one
to three months - then work for the next 6 to 12 months on filling
in the details, and native C functionality and inline ASM where
needed.  Such a system usually lasts for 3 to 4 years without
needing much change (from industry experience, including one of
the examples I just mentioned *cough cough*).

I've spoken with executives and venture capitalist that are
responsible for several million dollars worth of technology
expenditures - who re completely confident in the capacity
of Python for Enterprise Level developments of any size - ERP,
HIRS, CRM, Financial Systems, Accounting Systems, Billing
Systems, Trading Systems, data Mining/Warehousing Systems, you
name it.

I was about to build a Python system for Deutsche Bank, the
world's largest bank, with North American, European, and
Asia-Pacific operations, multilingual, HRIS, graphical charts
and analytics, database, security systems, the whole nine
(yes, thin-client Java Swing graphics with distributed load
balancing on the client end, plus ORACLE and encrypted
one-way anonymous data repository for survey data and aggregate
analysis).

Of course, we would never tell the general public that it was
written in Python - that's silly.  Of course, we would never
tell the general public if we were running Java either -
because that is equally as silly.  We run "heterogeneous
systems" - and that's all anyone needs to know - for Risk
Management purposes.

Unfortunately, people generally tend to suck.  So that project
never completed because someone unnamed wasn't willing to wake up
everyday and be their own boss.

And Python coders like myself are starving artists because of
such silly and trivial things.  Mostly because of "grown men"
being considerably more immature than most of my peers.

On an interesting side note, I've noticed that more money seems
to be spent on Welfare Administration than on the actual welfare
itself, given some of the rules and regulations that these
agencies claim are legal and strictly adhere to.  I was turned
down for Food Stamps even though I only have water left right
now - it's interesting how a CTO level programmer gets no respect
because he focused on cost effective realistic solutions instead
of Multi-Level Sales and Marketing tactics like the ones that
destroyed the US Economy.

EMC just announced they'd make $1B less than they thought -
because - yes - all those con artists who were selling "solutions"
based more on merchant partnerships than real solutions - ripped
everyone off and no one is left!

My 2 cents worth.  If I had 2 cents anyway.

Always available for consulting or freelance work or start-up
prototyping, resume available if anyone really cares.


Kevin Douglas
President / Chief Technology Officer
Games and Theory Supercomputing, Inc.