I have used matplotlib along with numpy numerics etc for some analysis. Just home projects, but I have found python a much faster/better language for such development than Java. That being said, i have found the network aspects of other apps i've written to be much easier/faster in java. This could be due to my relative inexperience with python networking libraries compared to Java.
Python is likely a great choice. If you find some sections of the analytics performing poorly, you can implement those functions in C. A well modularized design in python will lend itself to relatively easy optimization via C libraries if you need them. FYI - I am not a C programmer, but the kind of mathematical functions that get written for optimization typically are trivial in C(meaning I could write them - and I still don't get pointer arithmatic). While Python may not be the "best" language/implementation stack to use. It is likely to still be a "good" choice for the type of app you describe. Is it THE langauge? couldn't tell you, that's decision that also entails a realistic look at the resources you have for development, the overall size/scale of the proposed system. External integration points etc. Additional things to thinka bout are licensing restrictions, IP issues. Is this something you want to sell in the future, a purely in-house tool? Most of my charting has been for personal purposes, so those considerations don't really matter to me - but are something to consider. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
