In the 2010 survey I took today there was no choice for Python under "Which technologies do you use...". I see 16,028 Python tagged questions on SO currently and only 6,556 Ruby tagged questions and Ruby is on the list, so why wouldn't they include Python when it's three times as important to the site's traffic, according to the audience?
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closed as off-topic by Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog, Glorfindel, Donald Duck, Arulkumar, rene Apr 18 at 11:13
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
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2[subjective] is currently at 6190. You're not saying tag count equates to an indication of its importance to the site are you? – random Jan 10 '10 at 7:46
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yeah, I'm pretty sure that if more people talk about thing A than thing B, than thing A is more important than thing B. I'm also saying that the entire scientific comunity uses Python, including NASA, so maybe SO cares about Python. – orokusaki Jan 23 '10 at 6:56
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1langpop.com is one site which gives fairly neutral objective numbers on language popularity as measured by multiple verifiable real-world metrics. – smci Jul 5 '11 at 7:31
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@smci - thanks, that's interesting. – orokusaki Jul 5 '11 at 18:04
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1...and as of 4/2011 it shows that Python was ~40% more widespread than Ruby on most metrics. – smci Jul 5 '11 at 19:05
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We can certainly look at the activity per tag, but we're more interested in how this correlates with the technologies in the survey.
To expand on Æther's answer, there is little (if any) interest in Python from an advertising perspective. Plus, there don't seem to be too many commercial products available.
As for Ruby/Rails.. for whatever reason coughfadcough, it's pretty hot and there's a lot of interest from advertisers.
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Of course it isn't commercial, much of the entire Python ecosphere is avowedly open-source, other than some proprietary IDEs. That's very much an intentional choice, and a reaction to the two decades of suck that was "Enterprise Java". (SO advertising salespeople) please don't conflate "commercial products" with "technologies" - only bad marketing types do that. If there's no market for selling an underperforming bloated commercial tool because there are better free open-source alternatives, that's always a positive, never a negative. Unless you're an advertising salesperson. – smci Apr 18 at 5:17
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"[In 2010" there is little (if any) interest in Python from an advertising perspective" Err, so what? I'm sure if we rewound the clock to the early 1980s, COBOL and PL/1 would be king. Where are they now...? – smci Apr 18 at 5:21
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Perhaps SO's advertising clients don't care as much about Python as Ruby.
There is an "other" section though:
Please list any additional technologies you actively use: ___________________
