Netscan and Python

[Nelson Minar]

Paul Prescod <paul at prescod.net> writes:
> According to Netscan, comp.lang.python is the only comp.lang. group in
> the top 5 to experience positive growth in 2003.

Coincidentally, I just saw Marc Smith talk about Netscan at ETech:
  http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2004/view/e_sess/4797

The thing he said that caught my attention is that comp.* is slowly
diminishing over the years. He showed a graph that indicated
microsoft.* has just about surpassed comp.*, both in number of posts
and number of authors.

Another random thought - folks often look at the relative lack of
Python books vs. Perl books as a sign of Python's weakness. Isn't it
strength? Python is so simple and the online docs are so good I never
even thought about learning it from a book.