Python Productivity Gain?

[RobE]

> In different articles that I have read, persons have constantly eluded to
> the productivity gains of Python. One person stated that Python's
> productivity gain was 5 to 10 times over Java in some in some cases. 

I have no data on this and can't say with respect to Java.  I can give 
my personal feeling and this is more compared to C.

I'd look at productivity in a few ways:

*  How many lines of code does it take.  More code lines really does 
mean longer to program and more chance of errors.
*  How hard it is to write code -- to be specific java and C have all 
these brackets which have to be tracked down... this does take time... 
though perhaps a good IDE handles that for you.
*  Complexity of errors possible -- for example in C (but maybe not so 
much in Java)-- un-initialized variables and memory leaks, etc are big 
problems.  Often very hard to find.  You often have to use complex 
debugging tools to test this sort of code an look for memory corruption.

My experience when writing an application is that all of these things 
are favorable for python.  You generate code fast, the syntax is such 
that you don't have to track down missing components like brackets, and 
when you write the code there are usually very few runtime errors -- 
except for logic errors -- which are usually obvious.

In terms of free/open environments python is also one of the best.

I do agree with some of the other posters -- actual productivity will 
depend on skill, and the power of the tools you use to build the app.  C 
and Java may have better commercial development tools and programs may 
be better at using these.

All in all though, I'm a python guy for many reasons.

Rob

P.S.  Sorry if you got more than one post--I'm having trouble with my
news client.