Is Python a commercial proposition ?

[lipska the kat]

Pythoners

Firstly, thanks to those on the tutor list who answered my questions.

I'm trying to understand where Python fits into the set of commonly 
available, commercially used languages of the moment.

My most recent experience is with Java. The last project I was involved 
with included 6775 java source files containing 1,145,785 lines of code. 
How do I know this? because I managed to cobble together a python script 
that walks the source tree and counts the lines of code. It ignores 
block and line comments and whitespace lines so I'm fairly confident 
it's an accurate total. It doesn't include web interface files (mainly 
.jsp and HTML) or configuration files (XML, properties files and what 
have you). In fact it was remarkably easy to do this in python which got 
me thinking about how I could use the language in a commercial environment.

I was first attracted to python by it's apparent 'Object Orientedness' I 
soon realised however that by looking at it in terms of the language I 
know best I wasn't comparing like with like. Once I had 'rebooted the 
bioware' I tried to approach python with an open mind and I have to say 
it's growing on me.

The questions I have are ...

How is python used in the real world.
What sized projects are people involved with
Are applications generally written entirely in python or is it more 
often used for a subset of functionality.

I hope this is an acceptable question for this group

Many thanks

Lipska

-- 
Lipska the Kat: Troll hunter, sandbox destroyer
and farscape dreamer of Aeryn Sun