HELP! Must choose language!

[Yu Wang]

Terry Hancock wrote:

>On Tuesday 31 December 2002 08:21 pm,   wrote:
>  
>
>>Yu Wang wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>> Yeah.  I'm totally agreed with that.
>>> For commercial usage, python is far from a "perfect" language. You'll
>>> have to
>>> make a choice among C/C++ , java, or something else. But it will be
>>> the
>>> last one
>>> to choose python.
>>>      
>>>
>>If Java were to be acceptable for commercial usage, what would prevent
>>Python from it?
>>    
>>
>
>I think that Yu Wang must mean that Python has limited acceptance in the 
>commercial job marketplace.
>
>Of course, that's a silly thing to say to a 9th grader -- by the time they 
>are actually looking for a job, the picture will have changed completely.  
>Python may be the "only" language for business programming by then (or 
>completely forgotten). Same for C++ or Java or Perl for that matter. 
>
>Actually I'm sure all those languages will still be used by somebody, but 
>relative popularity is fickle.  Just compare the current marketplace with 
>where it was ten years ago (1993). Remember, that's the year HTTP was first 
>deployed.  Linux was a fledgling and hardly anyone had heard of Python (I 
>don't actually know when Python was invented). Java was hardly known either. 
>Perl was around, but not that widely used (because it was the web that made 
>it insanely popular).  I don't think CGI had been invented, and C/C++ 
>dominated the commercial programming marketplace.  People who wanted to sound 
>superior dissed those of us still using Fortran.  (So, okay, some things 
>*haven't* changed, but you get the picture).  Time flies, huh?
>
>Cheers,
>Terry
>
>--
>Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
>Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com
>
>"Some things are too important to be taken seriously"
>
>  
>
Yes, I have to say you are right.  And also, talking about market is 
more like a "Mars Plan" than
something else, to a 9th grade student. Oh, I may make mistakes. If you 
can project the rockets now,
correct me :)

Let us focus:
For commercial usage, ( sorry, I would say it twice ), python program is 
simple, clear, maintainable...,
but it's slow. C/C++ ( sorry again, I would take c/c++ as example 
because I'm now using them ) is
rather faster and flexible. Sometimes, people choose language just by 
run-time speed.
I'm not saying python is not fit for commercial usage. In fact, I have 
seen several  successful stories
about python projects. But, in my memory, they are still somewhat 
"private projcet" done by one or
two or several guys. ( mostly, one person enough ). Of course, language 
like python do make projects
 easier for small groups and maybe it's the tides of new style. As you 
said, "Time flies..."

For language learning,  python is easy to learn and it's simple. It's 
fit for  learning what's programming
language. And it's oo, and fast developed, and full-functioning, and has 
lots of libraries, and .... so on.
C is not so hard to learn and it's not a bad choice to  make it the 
first choice, provided you want to
learn some hardware knowledge.

-- 
Best Regards!

Yu Wang