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Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2014 11:11:19 +1100
Subject: Re: What are the kinds of software that are not advisable to be developed using Python?
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Cc: "python-list@python.org" <python-list@python.org>
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On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 10:54 AM, Sam <lightaiyee@gmail.com> wrote:
> I got to know about Python a few months ago and today, I want to develop =
only using Python because of its code readability. This is not a healthy bi=
as. To play my own devil's advocate, I have a question. What are the kinds =
of software that are not advisable to be developed using Python?
>

Device drivers and operating systems. Definitely don't try writing
those in pure Python.

Anything that provides a C API is usually easier to program in C, so
you would want to write a Python-callable glue module. Sometimes
you'll find that there's nothing else to do but the module, in which
case you've pretty much written your app in C, but often you can write
a tiny driver script that calls on your functions - which means you
can, later on, write a GUI app that calls on the same functions. But
using ctypes for that is pretty messy and tedious. (Note that you
might be able to write your glue module using Cython. I've never done
this, but that's a sort of half-way mark between Python and C, with
most of the code feeling like Python but the facilities being like C.
Some day, I must try it.)

Projects that are already partly written in some other language, or
which should be written to use libraries in another language, usually
should be written in that language. Modifying your PHPBB forum should
probably be done in PHP, no matter what you think of that language
(and who doesn't).

Web applications that need to run on cheap web hosts usually need to
be written in PHP, too, but Python is available on a good few
"not-so-cheap" hosts, so that might not be a problem.

Heavy computation might be unideal in Python, but if you can grunge it
into NumPy operations, that won't be a problem.

For the rest, Python's probably a fine language. Applications,
servers, pretty much anything will work. Have at it!

ChrisA