Case study where Python was the final choice

php, perl, java, python

2^nd of December 2003

This is an article about a group of developers who had a task to do but hadn't chosen what programming language to use. The alternatives they had to choose from were C, PHP, Perl, Java and Python; and the requirements where these:

• We planned to prototype on a remote device and anticipated numerous changes. We needed a language that was designed with change in mind.
• We wanted to avoid the added step of code compilation in order to minimize the overhead associated with a change. An interpreted language seemed pragmatic.
• We wanted a language with good introspection capability.
• We needed to do a lot of string manipulation and file I/O. Whatever language we chose had to excel in both of these areas.

It's so suited for Python that it almost sounds as if they wrote the requirements after the choice. But that's just how Python is.

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