

Linux Journal: Readers' Choice Awards 2010 - Best Programming Language: Python - yarapavan
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/readers-choice-awards-2010

======
nikcub
There are some unusual results here and it is because the results are swayed
by topics and technologies that LinuxJournal cover, especially what they cover
favorably.

ie. The results inevidably reflect the editorial opinion of LinuxJournal,
since most of those who answer the survey are likely to source their
information from the magazine.

As an example, take revision-control. The winner was git, but unusually CVS
and subversion finished above bazaar and mercurial (and other more modern
systems).

Google results:

CVS or subversion, number of articles in LJ, the past 12 months:

[http://www.google.com/search?q=cvs+OR+subversion+site:linuxj...](http://www.google.com/search?q=cvs+OR+subversion+site:linuxjournal.com&hl=en&num=100&lr=&ft=i&tbs=qdr:y&cr=&safe=off)

9 results

Mercurial or Bazaar:

[http://www.google.com/search?q=bazaar+OR+mercurial+site:linu...](http://www.google.com/search?q=bazaar+OR+mercurial+site:linuxjournal.com&hl=en&num=100&lr=&ft=i&tbs=qdr:y&cr=&safe=off)

0 results

Git had 18 articles.

Same with Python (143 results) and Ruby (32 results). Further the coverage of
Python is extremely positive, with a number of feature articles - while for
Ruby (no rating at all) there are no featured articles.

The results of this survey shouldn't be seen as a study of the best, or even
the most popular technologies - since for all the categories that I checked,
the results and order of results matched the number of times that product or
technology had been covered in LinuxJournal.

~~~
nickpinkston
Do you think the large gap between Python and Ruby on this is due to the Mac
(I.e non-FOSS) bent that is in the Ruby community? It seems like Python guys
are more OS neutral IMO.

~~~
nikcub
Uncertain, I would love to find out. A good way to do it would be to use data
from GitHub/BitKeeper/Google Code to find user platform and dev language
(rather than using a survey).

I have had this in the back of my mind for a while now, initially I was going
to survey these repos for some numbers on which open source licenses are being
used the most - because I have a feeling that more and more code is being
released under more liberal BSD/MIT/Apache style licenses over GPL.

Could also collect other interesting stats and publish the results. It would
be awesome if GitHub or one of the others had an OKCupid style blog showing
trends/stats. Even if they anonymize the data and hand it to somebody else to
do (and get it from the others as well)

Actually if anybody wants to work on a weekend project to grep all these repos
for some interesting stats, let me know.

------
jncraton
I have a hard time taking this too seriously because CVS ranked as the third
best revision control system above bazaar and mercurial.

~~~
tzs
That was definitely a "WTF" moment when I saw that.

Are we in the Bizarro world? I know that Git vs. Mercurial is a bit like Vim
vs. Emacs, but I can't see how any rational person could rank them on opposite
sides of Subversion. If someone likes centralized over distributed, Subversion
should beat both Git and Mercurial. If one likes distributed, both Git and
Mercurial should beat Subversion.

~~~
dagw
This is the result of counting a bunch of votes, not a persons opinion, and as
such I imagine it has more to do with overall popularity than anything more
objective. See the results as number of content users each program has and it
makes far more sense.

------
stuhacking
It gets a little convoluted when they are giving awards for 'Best Packaging
System' and the nominees are: apt, aptitude and synaptic.

------
olalonde
Some unusual results:

\- 3rd best scripting language: Bash (who uses Bash for anything serious?)

\- Best Linux-Friendly Web Hosting Company: GoDaddy.com (isn't GoDaddy's core
business domain names?)

\- 3rd best VCS: cvs (in front of Mercurial and Bazaar?)

------
mahmud
Way to editorialize. The article includes tens of other categories, not just
programming languages. For example, Android won the most coveted "Product of
the Year" award.

------
cageface
I'm more of a Ruby guy but it really feels to me lately that Python
programmers have a much broader range of jobs to choose from. The Ruby web
ecosystem seems healthier to me but just about everybody seems to equate Ruby
with Rails. You can certainly do webdev in Python but also so much more.

~~~
klauern
I thought about this, too, but I see alot of these jobs with Python
requirements being a one-way street, so to speak. A physicist or aerospace
engineer might have more chances to work with Python in their jobs, but a good
Python developer would have a hard time trying to get a job where the primary
skillset requires a degree in Aerospace Engineering.

In general, most of the jobs in Python are side-effects of the field they're
used in and not based on being a good Python developer.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but in my localized job searches, Python isn't
seen as the primary skillset, merely a 'nice to have' one.

~~~
gaius
This is the real difference between Ruby and Python, in my experience too.
You're more likely to find Ruby used by people who self-identify as
programmers and more likely to find Python used by people who self-identify as
some other job - but the amount of code each group writes is probably about
the same.

------
jbk
It speaks about many other things, like best media player, best browser, and
such...

And I am glad we won the media player category.

------
prog
Large companies still seem to prefer Perl. I know both Perl and Python but for
larger programs I tend to prefer Python. I had a tough time convincing the
management that it we should use Python for a project (I expect it to be
20-30KLOC in Python). Perl is the default scripting language in my
organization. Default not as in policy but its what programmers reach out for
as thats what they know. I think this might be the case in most large
companies. Most programmers just know that Python exists but not much more.

Even where Perl is concerned, I don't think most developers in my organization
care about writing good code. I spent a lot of time dealing with a large code
base last week that uses a hash with hundreds of keys as a means of passing
data between functions. No one even bothers with cpan much.

~~~
ekiru
If a programmer writes code that is that bad in Perl, they will write code
that is that bad in Python. They will write code that is that bad in C or in
Ruby or in Haskell. No language will make programmers who don't care about
good code to write good code.

------
aloneinkyoto
In what way can a programming language be objectively better than another
language? I thought they were tools for accomplishing specific goals? It's not
like we hold competitions declaring hammers being better hammers than
screwdrivers.

~~~
Mithrandir
Which is better: a butter knife or a machete?

If you're cutting butter, than using a machete would be over-kill.

If you're cutting a large branch or stick, a butter knife might work but will
take a lot longer.

------
38leinad
"Your votes came down nearly exactly the same as last year, with C++ in second
place" Well, that certainly makes the winner feel less honored... :-)

------
Mithrandir
It also won Best Scripting Language.

