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Is Python a

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Who Uses <strong>Python</strong> Today?At this writing, in 2007, the best estimate anyone can seem to make of the size of the<strong>Python</strong> user base is that there are roughly 1 million <strong>Python</strong> users around the worldtoday (plus or minus a few). This estimate is based on various statistics, like downloadrates and developer surveys. Because <strong>Python</strong> is open source, a more exact count is difficult—thereare no license registrations to tally. Moreover, <strong>Python</strong> is automaticallyincluded with Linux distributions, Macintosh computers, and some products andhardware, further clouding the user-base picture.In general, though, <strong>Python</strong> enjoys a large user base, and a very active developer community.Because <strong>Python</strong> has been around for more than 15 years and has beenwidely used, it is also very stable and robust. Besides being employed by individualusers, <strong>Python</strong> is also being applied in real revenue-generating products by real companies.For instance:• Google makes extensive use of <strong>Python</strong> in its web search system, and employs<strong>Python</strong>’s creator.• The YouTube video sharing service is largely written in <strong>Python</strong>.• The popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing system is a <strong>Python</strong> program.• Intel, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Seagate, Qualcomm, and IBM use <strong>Python</strong> forhardware testing.• Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar, and others use <strong>Python</strong> in the production ofmovie animation.• JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Getco, and Citadel apply <strong>Python</strong> for financial marketforecasting.• NASA, Los Alamos, Fermilab, JPL, and others use <strong>Python</strong> for scientific programmingtasks.• iRobot uses <strong>Python</strong> to develop commercial robotic vacuum cleaners.• ESRI uses <strong>Python</strong> as an end-user customization tool for its popular GIS mappingproducts.• The NSA uses <strong>Python</strong> for cryptography and intelligence analysis.• The IronPort email server product uses more than 1 million lines of <strong>Python</strong> codeto do its job.• The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project builds its user interface and activitymodel in <strong>Python</strong>.And so on. Probably the only common thread amongst the companies using <strong>Python</strong>today is that <strong>Python</strong> is used all over the map, in terms of application domains. Itsgeneral-purpose nature makes it applicable to almost all fields, not just one. In fact,it’s safe to say that <strong>Python</strong> is being used by virtually every substantial organization8 | Chapter 1: A <strong>Python</strong> Q&A Session

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