Home Original page

Number of Python Users

Grant Griffin g2 at seebelow.org
Wed Oct 4 03:17:22 EDT 2000 
echuck3 at my-deja.com wrote:
> 
> In article
> <7DD36DE71CAA3CA4.89695785C739D34A.A0EFCBE9BC541CE9 at lp.airnews.net>,
>   claird at starbase.neosoft.com (Cameron Laird) wrote:
> > In article <8rb8an$jfl$1 at nnrp1.deja.com>,  <echuck at mindspring.com>
> wrote:
> > >Is there any kind of estimate on the number of Python users? Or even
> > >related numbers, like # of downloads of 1.5.2?
> >                       .
> >                       .
> >                       .
> > A couple of years ago, gossip circulated "half a million" as
> > a number which I believe originated with the O'Reilly empire.
> > It's a very fuzzy question, by the way--you do understand
> > that, right?  What's the use of the estimate?  Is it for com-
> > parison with a Java head-count, as diagnostic for a policy
> > decision about the wisdom of reliance on a "minority language"?
> > --
> >
> > Cameron Laird <claird at NeoSoft.com>
> 
> Yes, I do understand that it's fuzzy.
> 
> And in response to someone else's question: I meant actual developers,
> not people who happen to run Python programs (and may not even know it).
> 
> Also, thanks to Martin von Loewis who pointed me to a FAQ which pointed
> me to: http://www.python.org/stats/ which doesn't answer the question
> directly, but has some related numbers.
> 
> The purpose of my question is to tell the client something like "there
> are an estimated 500,000 people using Python" so they don't panic about
> a technology they haven't heard of before.

My favorite objective statistic is the number of books published about
Python.  A lot of new Python books have been published in the last
year.  The last time I was at a "Borders" bookstore, I found 4 different
Python books.

and-bought-two-of-'em-ly y'rs,

=g2
-- 
_____________________________________________________________________

Grant R. Griffin                                       g2 at dspguru.com
Publisher of dspGuru                           http://www.dspguru.com
Iowegian International Corporation	      http://www.iowegian.com
More information about the Python-list mailing list