Is it worth learning python?

[Peter Hansen]

Raphael Ribeiro wrote:
> 
> I wanna start learning some real programming language (I know now only
> Visual Basic , but i don't find it interesting ,sorry for the vb
> programmers, but this is my opinion). And I was reading some docs ,
> which were talking about lots of programming languages, I saw there
> Python , and took a look at some python sites. I saw some snippets and
> read some docs and liked the language a lot. But I don't know if this
> language is well-accepted in the market and if having a good python
> knowledge would give me a good job.. I am only 17 and I'm only making
> plans, so if you have any suggestions tell me.

Someone else around your age recently posted a very similar question.
If you try searching the archives (groups.google.com) for this 
newsgroup from within the last two months (if I recall) you might find
it.

As for your question about the job market, are you planning to go
to university/college for further schooling before you are seriously
looking for programming work?  If so, do NOT worry about which 
language is currently popular or not, because the landscape will
certainly have changed in another eight years or whenever you will
be done school.

With that out of the way :-), Python is an excellent first language,
or second or whatever, and there are definitely companies using it
extensively.  At my current place of employment, we have had as many
as fifteen developers all using Python for a wide variety of tasks.
In fact, it was and remains our key programming language for almost
all application areas (excluding client-side web programming, and 
some embedded/realtime systems work).

I really wish Python had been available when I was 17...  I would
have wasted far less time in my life with lesser options.

-Peter