Challenges
and
Opportunities
for
Python
Ted Leung
Sun Microsystems

Scala?

Scala?
Haskell?

Scala?
Haskell?
Erlang?

PHP - 9.4%
Python - 5.2%
JavaScript - 3.6%
Perl - 3.4%
Ruby - 2.6%

30%
22.5%
15%
7.5%
0%
Java C# C Dynamic
Java C# C PHP
Python Javascript Perl Ruby

Evans Data Report

O’Reilly Book Sales

Google AppEngine Beta
100,000 signups

PyCon Attendance
1100
825
550
275
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

http://flickr.com/photos/kk/1295074084/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swamibu/1407809687/

“All Cloud Computing applications
will be written in dynamic languages”
- Some Analyst

Security

Monitoring

libc.so.1`_write+0x15
libc.so.1`_fflush_u+0x36
libc.so.1`fflush+0x43
libpython2.4.so.1.0`file_flush+0x2a
libpython2.4.so.1.0`call_function+0x32a
libpython2.4.so.1.0`PyEval_EvalFrame+0xbdf
[ build/proto/lib/python/mercurial/transaction.py:49 (add) ]
libpython2.4.so.1.0`PyEval_EvalCodeEx+0x732
libpython2.4.so.1.0`fast_function+0x112
libpython2.4.so.1.0`call_function+0xda
libpython2.4.so.1.0`PyEval_EvalFrame+0xbdf
[ build/proto/lib/python/mercurial/revlog.py:1137 (addgroup) ]
libpython2.4.so.1.0`PyEval_EvalCodeEx+0x732
libpython2.4.so.1.0`fast_function+0x112
libpython2.4.so.1.0`call_function+0xda
libpython2.4.so.1.0`PyEval_EvalFrame+0xbdf
[ build/proto/lib/python/mercurial/localrepo.py:1849 (addchangegroup) ]
libpython2.4.so.1.0`PyEval_EvalCodeEx+0x732
libpython2.4.so.1.0`fast_function+0x112
libpython2.4.so.1.0`call_function+0xda
libpython2.4.so.1.0`PyEval_EvalFrame+0xbdf
[ build/proto/lib/python/mercurial/localrepo.py:1345 (pull) ]
libpython2.4.so.1.0`PyEval_EvalCodeEx+0x732
libpython2.4.so.1.0`fast_function+0x112

Elasticity

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aloshbennett/3209564747/

Cores != Threads

16 threads

128 threads

Transactional Memory

Treat main memory as a database

An MVCC database

People understand transactions
Transactions compose

Inefficient
Non abortable operations - like I/O
Non-transactional code

!\"#$%&'(%)*\"+\",-./*
!

Actors

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeander/3172415460/

Futures

A=Future(function, arg1, arg2 ...)

MapReduce

Persistent
Data Structures

Tuple Spaces

ABP work stealing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgradinger/275818876/

serverjs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dos82/3047823578/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzcelt/2903751010/

Do we want to?
http://flickr.com/photos/kk/1295074084/

distutils Paver
zc.buildout
easy_install
setuptools pip
virtualenv
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jow/2850092362/

Py3K

OMG!

http://flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/218983827/ Scott Beale / LaughingSquid.com

http://flickr.com/photos/mojodenbowsphotostudio/95796251/

Do we want to?
http://flickr.com/photos/kk/1295074084/

Thanks!
ted.leung@sun.com
http://www.sauria.com/blog
http://twitter.com/twleung