[Zope] [off topic] question?

[Martijn Faassen]

Tom Deprez wrote:
> Another question to all you Python programmers. To tell you the truth, I
> never heard about Python before I heard of Zope! I knew of Java. Do, it
> looks like Python is older then Java...
> 
> How comes that Python is not so popular like Java (or not so known in
> Windows environment)? Like Java, Python is multi-platform. It can work on
> Windows as on Unix as on ....

I'd say:

* LOTs, lots of marketing for Java

* Java focuses more on cross platformness than Python does - Java code
is meant to be guaranteed to run on multiple platforms without changes,
Python doesn't have the same focus (though it's very possible to write
cross platform code anyway).

* Java has mass exposure to ordinary users through Java browser plug ins

* C/C++ syntax makes Java easier to pick up for C/C++ programmers (not
that Python is difficult to pick up by those at all either, actually)

> Are there any fundamental differences between Python and Java? I see Python
> has it's Java module (JPython) also...

Java is a statically typed language, Python is completely dynamically
typed. I'd say that is one of the most significant differences. Python
has some powerful built-in types such as lists and dictionaries that
Java doesn't.  Partially due to lots of research Java code can run more
quickly than Python code can. In the case of JPython, Java code can run
more quickly than code written in JPython (though CPython is faster than
JPython..I'm not sure what the benchmarks are).
 
I'm not very familiar with the details of Java, though.

> So, I don't get it... Why is Java so popular, while Python seems to be the
> same and is born before Java...
> 
> Can somebody give me a easy explenation?

No easy explanation. Don't worry though; Python is (I keep making this
prediction :) getting near to the 'straight up into infinity' part of
the exponential growth curve. We're going to see a lot more Python
around in a few years...

Regards,

Martijn