Python Learning Journal (Part I - Foreword)

Learning from past experiences and evidences, there is always a death point for everything when it comes to technology, especially IT. So it is always a good thing to try out something different, prepare yourself for that one day when you need to make that changes.

I have been sticking myself to Java for at least 4 years (I started as a Delphi fans - the legendarily popular desktop programming language). At that time, Java was just starting to get popular with its runtime version 1.5.0.

The problem with Java is that you need to type a lot, java codes, XML, XSD, properties file and everything. However this problem can be overcame by varieties of sophisticated tools and IDE. And then the hosting cost for a Java web application, is not cheap. You'll at least need a dedicated server. There is no way you can host it shared with another applications.

Not to mention when you code for a desktop application, there is hardly any good and productive desktop UI library you can rely on. The only thing that is robust enough IMHO is SWT (The Standard Widget Toolkit) from Eclipse foundation, which consumes a lot of memory and is very very slow (needs references).

I am not saying that Java is bad, or going to be outdated soon. Actually Java is really good for an enterprise solution. But I think it is a requirement to explore something contrastingly different (a dynamic language) than the thing you do everyday, once in a while. And ironically Python is not even something new, should I pick another language instead?