Hi Jean, Over the past year we've started porting all my firm's batch data processing (non-GUI) applications from VFP, C/C++, AWK/SED, Informatica, T-SQL, and PL/SQL to Python. Most of these applications are more text processing (ETL) than database related with the flat file outputs formatted for import into various commercial databases.
Our results so far: - about 1/3 less lines of code - 20%-2000%+ faster code (depending on the tool we've replaced) - transparent movement of code between Windows, Linux, Solaris Note: The above stats are just the beginning for us. I'm positive that we will continue to reduce our code size and improve our performance as we master the subtleties of Python and as we consolidate our code base around a single tool. Important features for us are Python's OS portability, 64 bit support, and dictionary data structures. Python imposes few size restrictions on your data structures other than your available memory. And with memory being so cheap, it is now possible to do many large scale data processing operations entirely in memory using basic data structures vs. a traditional database. We haven't moved any of our GUI related applications to Python. I've looked at various Python GUI frameworks and the Dabo application framework, but haven't had the time to really learn any of these technologies. One of my goals in 2009 is to decide on a GUI framework and begin porting our GUI applications to a Python based infrastructure as well. BTW: I've spent a lot of time looking at Visual Studio and .NET. Visual Studio offers a very tempting user interface for code development and some beautiful GUI tool kits, but in the end I couldn't trust my company's future to Microsoft (or any single vendor). A big and unexpected bonus is the ability to seamlessly port our batch applications to cheap Linux servers. Now that we have this flexibility, we could never go back to a Windows-only world. I'm 48 and I found the transition to Python to be much more difficult than I expected. But now that I'm here, I can't imagine going back. Many thanks to Ed, Paul, and the small, but growing community of ex-Profoxer's on the ProPython mailing list! Malcolm _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
