who uses Python or Ruby, and for what?

[Andrew Dalke]

-11,3-3562,3-3076 wrote:
>A while ago I posted a request for people to share their experiences
>with using Python or Ruby to implement a sizeable software project
>(i.e.  something that would take 10-20K lines of C and Tcl/Tk to
>write).  [...]
>
>So, at the risk of being accused of trolling, let me rephrase the
>question-- is anyone using Python or Ruby for anything substantial and
>product-quality, or are these languages only good for writing quick
>little unsupported hacks?

There are two questions here.  1) sharing experiences, 2) is Python
or Ruby useful for sustantial & product-quality projects.  The answer
to 2) is yes.  I've worked on several commerical quality applications
in Python in the code size you are talking about.  Python has always
been of better quality than the C compilers on the same platforms.
The answer to 1) is no, I don't want to write up yet another
description - see my last paper at the Python conference, or my 01/01
article for Dr. Dobbs, or read the dozens of papers from previous
Python conferences (are they available online?) or scan through the
back newsgroups postings.

                    Andrew
                    dalke at acm.org