Choosing a programming language as a competitive tool

[Brett g Porter]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Kuchling" <akuchlin at mems-exchange.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: Choosing a programming language as a competitive tool
> I liked all the comments on Slashdot that said they'd prefer to use
> something more common such as C++ because it's too difficult to find
> good programmers who can handle Lisp.  Hmmm.... "let's not get good
> programmers to make our product in Lisp/Python/whatever; we'll get
> some mediocre programmers to make it in C++ and that'll be better for
> the company."  Explains a lot about the pathetic state of software,
> doesn't it?
Well, it explains something about the mindset of the typical /. poster,
perhaps. Here are issues from my point of view (keep in mind that my company
is literally on the verge of selling our first Python project after being an
almost exclusive C++ shop for 10 years -- it only took me 2 years to make
that happen)

* You don't need to hire mediocre C++ programmers -- there's some incredible
talent out there.
* It's easier for my company (as a rule) to sell applications in C++
* Clients often balk at the idea of a language that doesn't compile to
binary code.

Admittedly, my situation is different than at many places -- we do mostly
realtime (or near realtime) work, or apps that are tightly coupled to custom
hardware. We don't do a lot of server-side work. Even if it never happens,
clients like the idea that they can take the code in-house at the conclusion
of the project and turn their own developers loose on maintenance. At most
places, their people are using C++ (or at least compiling C code that
happens to be contained in .cpp files)