You guessed correctly. Python is on HP (and Compaq now) PCs because I put it there.
And yes, I did get the "I've found Python on my computer, what does it do and can I remove it" from the support group. How to answer that? You have a computer with Windows Script Host (JScript & VBScript) built in and you want to remove Python? I think the best answer is "it does all kinds of wonderful things! You can remove it, of course (easy enough, it is in the "Add / Remove Programs" list, after all), but why don't you learn how to use it instead? (I even unhooked the file association to prevent Python file attachments in emails from giving a black eye to Python, so out of the box, it was relatively safe). I've use Python and the Win32 extensions for much of the automation of the process that pre-installs all the software on the PCs. Of course, Python is very versatile and is ideal for the wide range of tasks, large and small that are involved. Being that it is both powerful and easy to learn (and also because of no lack of evangelism (I hate that term, but don't have a better synonym) on my part), it has been adopted as the main language used by the whole division for build-automation related tasks. Before Python, I wrote the tools in C++ and did scripting with JScript. I don't think I have to tell anyone on this list how dramatic an increase in productivity Python can give over these in many areas (there are a still a few areas where the C++ tools reign, but Python also works well with those). I was contacted by Kevin Altis and later Stephan Deibel about doing a Python success story about this and I was game. I did start it, but didn't get it finished in time for the Python Success Story book before OSCON 2004 in July and have since put it on the back burner. I need to take a little vacation from work, so I can finish that. - Matt -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
