python suitability for large critical run forever apps

[ssthapa at classes.cs.uchicago.edu]

Tim Rowe <digitig at cix.co.uk> wrote:
>It depends on what you mean by "large critical run forever apps". I 
>routinely deal with systems that can kill a few hundred people if they go 
>wrong, and that's what /I/ mean by "critical". But then I baulk at the 
>suggestion that such a system might be "large", never mind the suggestion 
>that it might be multithreaded! If you need something like IEC61508 SIL4 
>or the military equivalents then forget Python (and C/C++, and Perl, and 
>Ruby...). That doesn't make /any/ of those a "toy" language, just not 
>right for that application. I've said before -- here, I think -- that I 
>don't believe in general purpose languages; to misquote Michael Jackson, 
>if a language offers to helps you with /every/ problem, it won't help you 
>/much/ with /any/ problem.

  FWIW, Erlang which is used by Ericsson and Bluetail to control and operate
their telecom equipment has a fairly nice multithreaded model.  Basically, 
if an error causes a process to crash, a supervisor process just restarts
the process.  This may not be the best solution when you don't want any data to
be missed or lost but it gives fairly good performance on telecom switches.  


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