Still wasting time on DDJ Technetcast 
Interesting interview about Python's success. Touches on many issues we talked about here in the past.
One interesting issue is the relation between programming languages and productivity. I read some studies on this (obviously written before Python existed), but I still find most productivity claims to be hard to believe. Sure: buliding from scracth takes more time, compared to using a language with builtin features (think Perl and regexps). But for most purposes you can find approriate libraries. When it comes to the notion of expressiveness, I find the data much harder to interpret. Is Scheme really more expressive than C?
Eckel mentions that Python is especially good for solving messy problems. Seems like we are coming back to the idea of prototypig, RAD, and stratified designs. I guess it is pretty well known that dynamic languages are a Good Thing for this kind of processes. Directly related to scripting and glueing.
Another topic that comes up is the importance of the availability of reusable libraries of code. We talked about this in the past. Not just cookbooks! CPAN like stuff, or comprehensive standard libraries (like Smalltalk's?).
One notion Eckel uses to explains Pythons success is that of the benevolent dictator. I am not sure how invented this term, but I like it.
(Check this, more dense discussion, too.)
Posted to Python by Ehud Lamm on 5/28/01; 4:59:31 AM
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Python 9: Interview with Bruce Eckel
